Hidden Away
by Spooky Misty
Summary: 9th Doctor/OC (friendship, eventual romance). Virgo is a Time Lady from a burning Gallifrey that the Doctor had saved, but she is hiding something from him that is changing her whole life forever. Jackie, of all people, find out what that secret is before the Doctor and Rose do, as she had done it before as well. What happens when Virgo finally tells the Doctor? How does he react?
1. Rose: A Joke Gone Wrong

An alarm sounded off on a side table next to a messed up, pink bed with a blonde teenager sleeping in it. The said girl slammed her hand onto the alarm, stopping the irritating and awful noise. She groaned and slowly sat up in her bed, trying to blink away the sleep in her eyes.

About fifteen minutes later would find the same girl all washed up, nice and proper. She wore nothing special, just a gray shirt and baggy pants with sneakers on both feet. She grabbed her small purse off the kitchen counter and speed-walked over to the couch, where her mother was sitting on it with a bowl of cereal in her hand, a spoon in the other, watching the morning programs.

"Bye!" the blonde kissed her mother on the cheek and walked over to the front door to go to her job at Henrick's Department Store.

"See you later!" her mother called after her without looking away from the TV, too interested in the latest news so she could gossip about it to Beth or something later.

The blonde took a bus to the center of London to get to Henrick's, getting off when she saw the giant banner with the store's name on it. She went inside and did what she did nearly everyday of the week: organizing clothes and chatting with some friends who worked in the store with her, some of them talking about the chief electrician, Wilson's, win in the lottery.

A little while later, around noon or 1 o'clock (or 13 o'clock, whichever is preferred), the blonde was allowed to leave, so she took that opportunity to have lunch with her boyfriend, Mickey Smith. He would sometimes try and kiss her cheek while she was munching on something, and she would always try to push his face away playfully with a laugh. Then he would take a bite and ask her how the shop was doing, then back to an attempted kiss.

At the end of the day, the blonde followed her co-workers to the door so that she could leave, a security guard standing by it, making sure that everyone was going home and not sticking around to steal some clothes. That was pointless, trying to steal Henrick's clothes. They're pretty standard and are only clothes you go to unless you have no other choice, so no one really knew how the shop was still standing.

The blonde was about to be set free when the security guard said, "Oi!" He shook a transparent, plastic bag in front of the blonde's face with a smug or victorious grin.

The blonde gave him a fake smile and took the bag, imagining clawing out Wilson's eyeballs. She turned on her heel and walked over to the elevators as the security guard left the shop, which was very unfair. Why did _she_ have to get Wilson the money? Why couldn't it be the girl in front of her, or two girls in front of her? Oh well, she would make sure that Wilson never heard the end of it from her.

The elevator reached to the bottom floor with a ding, cutting off the blonde's promise to the chief electrician. She got off it and looked both ways out the corridor, the doors closing behind her.

"Wilson?" she called out, choosing to walk down the left side of the corridor; that was where Wilson's office was. "Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?"

She walked over to a door was a large sign that said danger of electric shock and a bigger sign that said it was Wilson's office. Henrick's had a lot of signs, didn't it? She stood off to the side, should Wilson himself open the door to take the money so she could go home.

"I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop," the blonde said loudly, hoping that Wilson could hear her. "Wilson! Oh, come on."

A clattering noise interrupted the blonde's next call to the man, which came from further down the corridor.

"Hello?" she turned her head swiftly toward the noise. "Hello, Wilson, it's Rose." She walked down the corridor slowly, cautious of there were going to be any intruders. "Wilson?"

She walked over to a nearby door where she thought could be a source to the cluttering noise she heard from a few seconds ago. She opened the door to reveal a large room, nearly as large as Wilson's house, that was filled with old shop window dummies that the owner of Henrick's had tossed in the trash. She turned on the lights to reveal the dummies were wearing clothes and some wigs, which quickly turned the atmosphere creepy, to her.

"Wilson?" she slowly walked more into the room, eyeing the dummies, as if one of them were going to come to life and eat her. "Wilson!"

She crouched down to check under a group of dummies, when she heard the door slam from behind her, no one else in the room that could possibly close it with that much force. She turned around and sprinted to the door, trying to open it, but it was no use. It was locked.

She was trapped.

"You're kidding me," she nearly scoffed as she gave the door a little kick. She suddenly stopped and turned around when she heard some more noises, mostly coming from the back of the room. "Is that someone mucking about? Who is it?" She walked to about the middle of the room when she sensed she was being followed. She turned around and saw that a male dummy had moved from its place and was walking awkwardly toward her, like a broken robot.

"Yeah, you got me," Rose laughed nervously and backed away from it. "Very funny." A second dummy moved behind her, as a third did, then a fourth... then a fifth... "Right, I've got the joke. Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?"

The dummies managed to back Rose up against a wall, next to a pipe going from the ground to the wall. One dummy moved in front of a cowering Rose and raised its arm. She closed her eyes and prepared to chopped up to pieces...

When a warm hand touched her shaking one.

Rose opened her eyes and looked at the source of the hand, eyes locking with an older man's. He looked to be about forty, leather jacket and a jumper and that sorts.

"Run," was all he told her before he tugged her away from the dummy's trap. The dummy chopped up the pipe, allowing gas to escape from it.

The mystery man lead Rose over to the elevators and both of them clambered inside. The dummy that had been about to chop up the blonde caught up to them and stuck its arm between the doors before it could close.

The mystery man found the solution to the problem by taking hold of the dummy's arm and started to yank on it. Rose winced with every tug until the arm finally came off the dummy, and the doors closed. Finally.

The man smiled happily and held the arm with both hands, both arms dangling in front of him, like a proper gentleman would do. Rose eyed him oddly, a bit thankful for his coming, but also a bit scared of him.

"You pulled his arm off," was all she could say.

"Yep," the man nodded, as if talking about the weather or sports. "Plastic." He held up the arm before placing it back to its original spot.

"Very clever," Rose shook her head at him. "Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

The man seemed curious about that. "Why would they be students?"

"I don't know," she shrugged.

"Well, you said it," the man also shrugged. "Why students?"

"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students."

"That makes sense. Well done."

"Thanks."

"They're not students," the man said, eyes narrowing at that fact at the doors.

Rose sighed, not liking how the man was telling her these things and not explaining it to her. "Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police."

"Who's Wilson?"

"Chief electrician."

"Wilson's dead," the Doctor said unemotionally as the elevator doors opened, allowing them inside a floor that Rose had never been before. Well, it wasn't her fault, now was it? Her station was at the first floor, organizing clothes and chatting with her colleagues (she liked to think that chatting was part of the job). It wasn't her job to go exploring the entire building.

Rose narrowed her eyes and followed the man out. "That's just not funny. That's _sick_!"

"Are we done prancing around, Doctor?" Rose heard a feminine voice come out from behind her, so, on instinct, of course, she turned around and saw the source of the voice.

The woman looked about to be mid or late twenties, and was another blonde, but her hair was put into two braids that were dangling near her bum. Her shiny, blue eyes were ignoring Rose's and were focusing on the mystery man, her lips forming into a smirk. She had on an orangish, reddish tank top, light blue skinny jeans, black converse, a pearl bracelet on her right hand, and a straw hat with a lovely black ribbon around it with a bow on it.

"I thought so," the braided blonde nodded before the man could answer her. She turned to look at Rose, finally. "Who're you?"

"Hold on," the man, the 'Doctor,' warned over at the elevator controls, cutting off Rose's introduction to herself. "Mind the eyes."

"I've had enough of this now," Rose stomped her foot, as if doing that would get the two people attention to her.

To her dismay, both of them ignored her as the Doctor took out a sort of silver wand thing and flashed it within the wires, creating a soft buzzing sound. He kept at it for a few seconds until there was a spark, then he took the wand back out from it.

"Who are you two, then?" Rose demanded as the braided blonde gave the Doctor some sort of gadget. "Who's that lot down there? I said, who are they?"

The braided blonde groaned, which made Rose raise an eyebrow. "They're basically creatures from another world that are made of plastic, being controlled by a relay device in the roof."

"Which would be a great, big problem if we didn't have this," the Doctor held up the device to her. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up while she," he nodded to the braided blonde, "goes somewhere relatively safe. And I might die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them all killed."

He walked Rose over to the stairs, then went into a room that lead up to the roof and shut the door.

Rose blinked and looked at the braided blonde, who just shrugged.

"After you," she gestured to the stairs with a blank expression, as if expecting Rose to listen to her.

Before she could reply, the door opened again and the Doctor looked a bit apologetic.

"I'm the Doctor and that's Virgo, by the way," he introduced. "What's your name?"

"Rose," she eyed him oddly while Virgo made a shooing motion toward him.

"Nice to meet you, Rose," the Doctor nodded before holding up the bomb. "Run for your life!"

Rose just stared at the door the Doctor left while Virgo gave a little chuckle and took the human's hand and lead her downstairs. They were outside soon enough, London being just as busy as it always has been. Cars going up and down the road, people going home from either work or late night shopping.

"Just act normal," Virgo whispered to her before she left Rose and started jogging toward the road, dodging all of the cars perfectly.

Rose just scoffed. Like hell she's going to let her get away from her, at least until she's explained everything to her. So, without thinking straight, she ran into the middle of the road and nearly got run over by a cab with no passengers inside.

"Watch it!" the cab driver shouted at her with the honk of his horn.

Rose just glared at him and made it to the other side of the road, searching for Virgo, but she was nowhere in sight. Just as she gave up, the roof of Henrick's exploded, chunks of the building flying everywhere. Nearby walkers shrieked and started to run away from the exploding building. Rose stared at Henrick's for a few moments before running back toward her home, the Powell Estate.

"I _know_ ," Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler, exasperated over the phone as she brought her daughter some tea. Rose was currently on the couch, watching the news about Henrick's while Jackie just _had_ to gossip to her friends about it without a care for her own daughter. "It's on the _telly_. It's everywhere. She's lucky to be alive. Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now, you'd think I was _her_ daughter."

That's when Rose's boyfriend, the guy who she had ate lunch with earlier in the day, Mickey, came running in, looking as if he had ran a mile just to get to her side.

"Oh, and here's himself," Jackie shrugged and nodded Mickey over to the couch, unsure if he could see Rose, as she was practically sinking into the cushions.

Mickey kneeled down beside Rose. "I've been phoning your mobile. You could've been dead! It's on the news and everything. I can't believe that your shop went up!"

"I'm all right, honestly, I'm fine!" Rose held up her hands with the roll of the eyes, already having gone through this with Jackie. "Don't make a fuss."

"Well, what happened?" Mickey asked eagerly.

"I don't know!" she sighed in frustration.

"What was it though? What caused it?"

"I wasn't in the shop. I was outside. I didn't see anything."

Jackie came walking back in the room, the phone resting on her shoulder so the person on the other end couldn't hear them. "It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. 500 quid for an interview."

"Oh, that's brilliant!" Rose faked enthusiasm and held out her hand to her. "Give it here."

Jackie gave her the phone, in which Rose used to turn it off and slam it on the coffee table. Her mother huffed in annoyance.

"Well, you've got to find some way of making money," Jackie said. "Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out." The phone rang again and she jumped at the opportunity to answer it. "Bev! She's alive. I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within _seconds_ of death..."

Rose chuckled at her mother before sipping on her tea.

"What're you drinking, tea?" Mickey grimaced and took the cup away from his girlfriend. "Nah, nah, that's no good, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger."

"I'm all right," Rose whined, too lazy to reach for the tea, which was now on the coffee table, in the phone's place.

"Now, come on, you deserve a proper drink," Mickey stood up. "We're going down the pub, you and me. My treat." He held out his hand to her. "How about it?"

Rose eyed the hand suspiciously. "Is there a match on?"

"No, I'm just thinking about you, babe."

"There's a match on, ain't there." It wasn't a question.

Mickey sighed, "That's not the point... but we could catch the last five minutes."

"Go on, then," Rose laughed at him. "I'm fine, really. Go. Get rid of that." She pointed to the dummy arm that the Doctor has pulled off from a, well, dummy. She and Mickey shared a quick kiss on the lips then Mickey retrieved the hand.

"Bye, bye," he waved with the arm that was holding the dummy arm.

"Bye," Rose waved back at him.

Mickey took the arm to his neck and pretended to be strangled by it, which earned a laugh from Rose. He laughed as well then left the apartment. Rose shook her head in amusement and returned to the TV, which was now talking about how the fire spread and the fire crews.

The next morning, the alarm went off at 7:30, just like it did nearly every morning. An angry fist slammed on the off button, tired eyes blinking up at the ceiling.

"There's no point in getting up, sweetheart," Rose heard her mother's voice from the kitchen. "You've got no job to go to."

Rose sniffed as her tired mind processed Jackie's words before closing her eyes once more to sleep for another hour or two.

About an hour later, a refreshed Rose was sitting at the table, drinking her morning cup of tea while Jackie worked in the kitchen, finishing up with cleaning the dishes. The two were discussing on potential jobs that Rose could take on that were around the corner or a few blocks away.

"There's Finch's," Jackie suggested. "You could try them. They've always got jobs."

"Oh, great," Rose rolled her eyes sarcastically before taking another sip. "The butchers."

"Well, it might do you good," Jackie argued. "That shop was giving you airs and graces, and I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got 2,000 quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!" Rose eyed her mother oddly. "I know she _is_ Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim."

Rose scoffed at her mother's claim, but her eyes landed on the door when she heard something rattle from outside of it. She immediately got up and stormed to the door.

"Mum, you're such a liar," she yelled at Jackie as she went into her room to get ready for the day ahead of her. I told you to nail that cat flap down; we're going to get strays."

"I did it weeks back!" Jackie argued back, her voice slightly muffled from the walls.

"No, you _thought_ about it!" Rose sighed as she kneeled down to the flap's height. She picked up two screws off the floor and saw that about five more in the area. She frowned at this, but jumped a little bit when the cat flap rattled once more. Rose slowly opened the flap and found Virgo's head, causing her to quickly stand up and open the door, revealing Virgo to now be standing, as well.

" _You_ live here?" Virgo crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, what of it?" Rose eyed her closely, wondering how she found out where she lived in the first place. Mickey could have told her... She would have to talk to him later about that.

"So much for being a detective inspector," Virgo blew the air out of her mouth and put away a black, old wallet that Rose had just noticed she was holding in her back pocket. "I don't know, it lead me here." She held up what looked like a sleeker wand, compared to the Doctor's, and black. When she turned it on, it made a higher pitched wheeze and a dim, yellow light. "Must have followed something else, then. Well... I'll see you later, then!" She waved goodbye to her and turned on her heel, but before she could leave, Rose grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.

"You, inside," Rose said. "Right now."

"Who is it?" Jackie's voice called from her room, having heard someone talking to her daughter.

Virgo entered Jackie's room, the black wallet out once more. "Good morning, ma'am. Detective Inspector Vicky Ryans. I'm just here to talk with your daughter about the Henrick's incident. I hope ten minutes is fine with you...?"

"Oh," Jackie blinked when she read the the white space on the wallet. "Well, all right, then. But she deserves compensation!"

"No problem," Virgo nodded, choosing to ignore Jackie's request and put away the wallet back in her back pocket. She walked out of her room and into the living room, where Rose was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"You can't be a detective inspector," she accused.

"Well, don't shout it out," Virgo shrugged, not at all surprised that she managed to catch on that wasn't what she told Jackie. She took out the black wallet _again_ and flashed it at Rose. "Psychic paper. Shows whatever the owner wants it to say." Rose took it and read it. "Some people can't read it, however, and it's only because they're either geniuses or they're trained to read through it, which, to my knowledge, no one knows how to. What does it say?"

Rose shrugged. "It's blank."

Virgo laughed and took back the psychic paper. "Liar."

Rose just shook her head at her in amusement. "Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?"

"Suppose so, thank you," Virgo smiled. "Milk, one sugar."

Rose nodded and turned to go to the kitchen when she realized something. "Hey, where's the other one? The, er... what was his name?"

"The Doctor?" Virgo said. "He's just going on a little stroll, following his own trail. I may or may not have sent him on a little goosechase."

Rose laughed and went into the kitchen. She was starting to like this girl. She seemed pretty rude when they first met, but now actually talking to her... Virgo sounded like a good hangout buddy.

"We should go to the police," Rose suggested as she started to make the coffee for not just Virgo, but for herself as well. "Seriously. The both of us."

Virgo took no notice in what Rose was saying as she had a quick look around the living room, the largest room in the apartment. The coffee table was sitting in front of the TV, which was currently turned off and sat peacefully on the ground. The couch looked quite messy with all the pillows in the wrong places, some were even on the floor. Rose _did_ imply that it was a messy room. The table held some food trash and two chairs tucked closely in to each other, trying to create more space or just to be polite and push the chairs in.

"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong."

Virgo picked up a small chapter book and flipped through the pages to see how many there were (about 100 to 200 pages), then read the back. It was apparently about a boy saying goodbye to his father after realizing that the father had cancer. After she read that, she immediately put it back on the table and placed some magazines on top of it. She didn't do sad endings. If something was going to be sad, she would never go near it, hoping that the temptation would eventually go away.

"They said on the news they found a body."

She then remembered that she was curious about the girl's last name, so she picked up the paperback again and opened up the cover (assuming that Rose or Jackie would write their name there). Rose _Tyler_ seemed to be her name. A last name that could be used as a first name. She always found those pretty cool and interesting.

She put the book back down (covering it again) and stood up to find a mirror on the wall right next to her. She walked closer to it, enough where she could see her reflection from the top of her head down to her stomach, and frowned. She quickly fixed up her tank top at the bottom, as she was seeing she was getting a bit chubby.

"All the same, he was nice... Nice bloke."

Virgo picked up a pack of playing cards, the box showing its age from the rips on the edges. She pondered if she should get the cards out for a moment, then shook her head. This body wasn't going to be a gambler, which was actually a nice thought, thinking about it.

"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying. I want you to explain everything."

Virgo put the pack of cards down, just when something rattled at the cat flap once again. She turned to the door and frowned, knowing that she wasn't the cause of it rattling anymore.

"Do you have a cat, Rose?" she asked her, cutting off her rambles about Wilson or the police or whatever she was talking about.

"No," Rose shook her head distractedly, her focus entirely on the coffee, so she had no idea that Virgo had ignored her for probably a solid two minutes.

Virgo nodded to herself and went over to the cat flap and opened it. She was lying if she said that she wasn't surprised to find the dummy arm that Mickey had thrown out lying on the ground. The arm suddenly came to life and grabbed Virgo's throat.

She coughed and stood up instantly, unintentionally making her way to the living room, as she was trying to yank off the arm, causing her legs to move around.

"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate."

Virgo landed on a chair, her eyes pleading to Rose's when the said person came out of the kitchen, carrying two coffees. Rose simply raised an eyebrow, remembering that Mickey had pretended to strangle himself with the same arm. It was cute on him, but this was Virgo, so it wasn't as funny. In fact, it was just annoying.

"I told Mickey to chuck that out," she sighed, not noticing that it wasn't a prank. "You're all the same. Give someone a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know the other one's name. Doctor, what was it?"

Virgo finally managed to get enough strength and got the arm off, breathing heavily from the lack of oxygen. The arm flew up into the air, stopped in midair (defying gravity), and grabbed Rose's face. Virgo got to work to get it off of Rose as she got out her black and pointed it at the arm. Rose wouldn't stay still, as she was panicking, and eventually fell onto the chair across from Virgo's. She continued to aim the wand at the arm, and it eventually fell limp, making Rose to throw it across the room.

"There, you see?" Virgo chuckled as she picked up the arm with an amused grin, not noticing that Rose was the exact opposite of amused. " _Arm_ -less."

"Do you think?" Rose glared at her and took the arm and whacked her.

Virgo just laughed as she took back the arm and walked to the door, Rose following close behind her.


	2. Rose: Mickey the Clone

Rose chased after Virgo down a flight of dirty stairs, not letting her go that easily. Downstairs, she could see the Doctor waiting for Virgo with crossed arms and an annoyed expression.

He had followed her suggestion to search the remains of Henrick's for any possible dummy body parts to scan with because he thought that made sense, while Virgo actually _had_ a signal to one of the dummies that attacked Rose. He wasn't happy about that, but she was doing that a lot recently, sending him on missions that weren't worth anything at all while she was on the right track. It was annoying sometimes, but is was also... nice to compete against someone else. It was actually fun to compete his brain against another one's for good reasons instead of bad ones, like the Master.

"Hold on a minute!" Rose shouted after Virgo, not really caring that the Doctor was here. "You can't just go swanning off."

"Why can't I?" Virgo countered with a smirk as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "I don't take orders from anyone, so I shall do the opposite. Bye!" She nearly laughed out loud when she finally saw the Doctor waiting for her. "Hey... did you find anything?"

"I think I should ask you that," the Doctor replied. "What did _you_ find?"

"Auton arm," Virgo tossed it to him. "Tell you what, I'll let you scan it in the TARDIS. My apology to you."

"That arm was moving," Rose made it down shortly after the Doctor and Virgo started walking away from the stairs. Of course, she followed after them, wanting answers. "It tried to _kill me_."

"Yes, it did Rose Tyler," Virgo nodded, not at all thinking of the urgency of the situation. "I never would have thought of that. Thanks for pointing it out."

"You can't just walk away," Rose huffed, taking back the thought of Virgo being a cool buddy. "That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."

"No we don't," the Doctor shook his head, thinking that was awful idea to consider.

"All right, then," Rose nodded confidently. "I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me or I'll start talking."

"Is that supposed to sound tough?"

"Sort of."

"Doesn't work."

"In fact, you just made the situation worse," Virgo said, crossing her arms. "You just threatened to kill people, and I won't just let that slide, I'll have you know."

Rose rolled her eyes at them. Who did they think they were? Virgo lied to her mother about being the police and the Doctor pretty much blew up her job, leaving her to listen to Jackie's pointless suggestion of working at the butcher's. She didn't want to stand around and chop up meat all day!

"Who are you?" she pressed on, wanting at least _something_ out of them.

"Told you," the Doctor answered back. "The Doctor and Virgo."

"Yeah, but Doctor what? And who names their kid 'Virgo?'"

"No one does," Virgo shrugged. "I've never heard of someone naming their child 'Virgo,' but then again, this is a big universe. Someone out there has probably named their child 'Virgo.' And it's just the Doctor, nothing else."

"The Doctor and Virgo," Rose repeated, not at all convinced that those were their names. She didn't really understand Virgo's answer about her name, but when had either of them been making sense?

"Hello!" the Doctor waved at her happily.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" Rose laughed at him.

"Sort of," the Doctor answered at the same time Virgo answered, "Not at all."

"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. You may not be detectives, but are you really with the police or not?"

"No, we were just passing through," the Doctor raised an eyebrow at Virgo, who just waved the psychic paper at him, and he understood. "We're a long way from home."

"But what have I done wrong?" Rose asked. "How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"

"I'm sorry, since when did you become their centre of attention?" Virgo scoffed in amusement. "You're just a tiny problem compared to us, so the Autons are going after us, not you. You just keep following us."

"It tried to kill me," Rose gritted through her teeth.

"It was after him," Virgo pointed to the Doctor, who was looking curious, interested as to what had happened at the Tylers' flat, "and since I'm working with him, it went after me, too. In the shop, we were there. We had this awesome plan ready, but then you just came waltzing through like you owned the place and nearly ruined it. Today, I was tracking it down and vice versa. The only reason it went after you, too, was because you were in the same room as me."

"So, what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around _you_."

"No, I'm saying the entire world revolves around him," she pointed to the Doctor, who nodded in agreement. Virgo rolled her eyes at him. He had such a big ego, didn't he?

"You're full of it," Rose laughed at them.

"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor agreed.

"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?"

"No one."

"What, you're on your own? Just the two of you and no one else?"

"Well, who else is there?" the Doctor pointed out. "I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."

Rose took a deep breath, "Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"

"The thing controlling the dummies projects life into the arm, so the only way to 'kill it' is to cut off the signal," Virgo explained to her. "That's what I did back there."

"So that's... radio control?" Rose asked, trying to sound smart so she could convince them to tell her more.

"Thought control," the Doctor corrected her.

"So, who's controlling it, then?"

"Long story."

"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

"No," the Doctor laughed, Virgo shaking her head in amusement at the thought of it. That was something they haven't encountered yet, aliens taking over the shops and only the shops, not using them as a weapon to destroy the human race.

"No?" Rose laughed as well.

"That _would_ be pretty nice, but it's not that kind of war, sadly," Virgo said. "They basically want to destroy the human race. Do you believe that's true?"

"No."

"But you're still listening," the Doctor smirked.

Rose sighed and stopped walking, getting tired of following them around. People must be looking at them like 'what on Earth are they saying? A price war? Dummies?' "Really though. Tell me, who _are_ you two?"

The Doctor stopped walking as well, not because Rose stopped, but because he thought of a great way to make an impact on her, and maybe then she'll leave them alone. "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth." He grabbed Rose's hand. "The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny, little world, and if we let go..." He let Rose's hand drop. "That's who I am. Now forget us, Rose Tyler. Go home."

He nodded his head to where Rose's flat was, then turned around and walked into the park, as they had been walking the entire time the three of them were chatting, arguing, debating, he really didn't know. Virgo followed after him after she gave Rose a little promising wink, though the blonde really had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Rose just decided that maybe it really was better if she just stopped asking questions and just live her life without them, since they seem to know what they were doing. If they didn't need her help, well then, she didn't need their presence in her life. Fine.

She walked around the block, and that's when she heard it: a wheezing, groaning sound. She instinctively knew that the Doctor or Virgo were the source of that noise, so she ran back over to the park where she last saw them. To her dismay, she didn't see either of them, and that little blue box that was in the distance was gone, as well.

She took back everything she thought about before. She knew she was too demanding for her own good, but how could someone _not_ be interested in them?! You can't just blow up a shop and then be on your merry way without an explanation!

No, that was her new mission. If they won't tell her themselves, she was just going to have to do a little research, now wasn't she?

And she knew the perfect place to do so.

Mickey opened the door to his flat to find his girlfriend standing outside, smiling away at him.

Yes, this was Rose's 'perfect place' to figure out the Doctor-Virgo-Dummy mystery. She could have gone to the public library, but this was much more fun. After she did her research, she could get Mickey to do something for her, either drive her to a place or just spend the night at his place, either would do.

"Hey, hey, here's my woman," Mickey smirked at her. "Kit off!"

"Shut up," Rose laughed as she pushed Mickey's chest, but then brought him back close to her so they could share a peck on the lips.

"Coffee?" Mickey offered as he shut the door and Rose walked further into the flat, heading toward his bedroom.

"Yeah, only if you wash the mug," she accepted the offer. "And I don't mean rinse. I mean _wash_. Can I use your computer?"

"Yeah. Any excuse to get in the bedroom." He slapped Rose's bum, earning a squel from her. "Don't read my emails!"

She rolled her eyes at him as they parted way, Mickey going to the kitchen to 'wash' a mug of coffee (she didn't have to know he was just going to rinse it), Rose going to the bedroom for the computer. She shut the door and sat at the desk, her fingers hovering above the keyboard.

She opened up the internet browser and searched for 'Doctor.' It gave her about 17 million results, all about the other kind of Doctor, not THE Doctor. She shook her head, she should have seen that coming. She then searched for 'Virgo,' but as expected, it gave her the constellation with about 46 million results.

She huffed then tried 'Doctor Living Plastic,' which gave her 55,000 results about doctors and silverware. Rose then remembered that blue box that the two of them disappeared with. Surely that would give her some answers, perhaps? When she typed in 'Doctor Blue Box' with 500 results, she finally found what she was looking for.

The first link said 'Doctor Who?' and 'Do you know this man? Contact Clive here.' Looking promising, she clicked on the link which brought her to a website dedicated to the Doctor, but Virgo was nowhere to be seen. Her attention focused on a blurry image, but it was clear that it was the Doctor's head.

Just as suspected, Rose got Mickey to agree to drive her to this Clive's house, which was surprisingly close to the Powell Estate; they thought it would be at the opposite side of London, but to no avail, huh? Mickey parked his yellow car up to the side of Clive's two-story house, right alongside it as a man was bringing his trashcan to the curb.

"You're not coming in," Rose told him as she unbuckled herself. "He's safe. He's got a wife and kids."

"Yeah, who told you that?" Mickey scoffed, hands resting on the wheel. "He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say."

Rose shook her head at his antics as she gave him a quick kiss, then got out of the car and up the steps to Clive's. The neighbor got his trashcan to the curb, giving Mickey a nasty look for thinking that Clive would be an internet murderer. Mickey just nodded his head with a glare at him, inviting him to say something to him.

Meanwhile, being unaware of the situation behind her, Rose knocked on Clive's door, and a boy of ten years of age opened the door.

"Hello, I've come to see Clive?" Rose stared down at him, not comfortable talking to little kids. She always thought they were right old terrors. "We've been emailing."

The boy just grimaced at her while turning his head to the hall. "Dad! It's one of your nutters!" He gave Rose a final look, her polite grin faltering.

An older man of about forty years of age came to the door after shaking his head in disappointment at his son. He shook hands with the blonde in front of him, "Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously."

"I'd better tell you now," she replied. "My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me..." She pointed at the yellow car, Mickey looking peeved off.

"No, good point," Clive laughed, somehow expecting a comment like that. "No murders." He gave a little wave to Mickey, who just nodded with another glare.

"Who is it?" a woman came down the stairs with a laundry basket resting on her hip, obviously Clive's wife.

"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor," Clive waved her off as Rose stepped inside. "She's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed."

"She?" the wife looked very impressed by that as she closed the door. " _She's_ read a website about the Doctor? She's a _she_?"

Clive took Rose into the shed, as promised, in the backyard, him closing the door so apparently no one could interrupt them. Whoever the Doctor and Virgo were (did he even know about Virgo?), they must be a pretty serious matter.

"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive," Clive took out a folder and laid it on the table so Rose could glimpse at it. "I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place; political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Doctor. Always the Doctor. And the title seems to have been passed down to father and son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it?" He took out the same picture that was on the website front page and placed it in front of the girl before him.

"Yeah," she nodded in confirmation.

"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year," he explained. "The online photo's enhanced, but it we look at the original..." He took out the famous Kennedy assassination picture and pointed to the Doctor's face, which was much more clear than the first photo, "November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"

"It must be his father," Rose shook her head in shock.

That only caused Clive to prove himself even more, taking the picture back in the folder. "Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton... and friend." The picture was of a family of four, the Doctor standing a little ways away from them, the _Titanic_ in the background. "This was taken the day before they were due to set sail off for the New World on the _Titanic_ , and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived."

Clive took the photo back and took out a detail sketch, the Doctor standing on a beach with some other people. "And here we are: 1883. Another Doctor. And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion."

"Who's that?" Rose asked, feeling the suspense rising up on her skin, expecting him to say Virgo.

"Death," was his answer, certainly not the one Rose was expecting.

She instantly stiffened, her eyes wide as Clive's were deadly serious. "If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, Rose, then one thing's for certain: we're all in danger."

Mickey got out of his car and stormed over to the trashcan that the mean neighbor had put out, not to beat it up, but to investigate because it had moved forward a minute ago. He tried to think it was just some animal that had gotten inside, but it had moved again for a little while ago just now, him witnessing it.

He lifted up the lid, saying, "Come on, then." He was expecting to find some wierd guy sitting at the bottom, eating some trash or something, but to his dismay, there was nothing there. That was the interesting part: there was _nothing_ in it. No trash, no recycles, nothing. The neighbor put the trashcan out on the curb so that the garbage truck would come collect the trash on loop, not just for no reason.

"If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls, then God help you," Clive told Rose seriously, her smashing her teeth together to keep herself from saying that that is was a stupid theory.

Mickey sighed, thinking he was hallucinating the garbage can moving, so he put the lid down gently before the rude neighbor started calling him out as a trash digger. He moved to go back into his car, but he found that both his hands were stuck, as if glued to the lid. He tried pulling it, but it was as if it was some kind of paint, his skin actually looking like it was part of the lid.

He pulled his hands away about three feet before the force became too much for him and pulled him back. He took a deep breath and tried to get out of the lid's grip. He managed to get much further, but that was even worse, because the lid practically came alive and just ate him right then and there. With a scream, he was gone, nowhere in sight.

"But who is he?" Rose pressed on. "Who do you think he is?"

"I think he's the same man," Clive said honestly, glancing at portrait of the Doctor in the wall, between the two of them. "I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."

"But what about Virgo?" she asked him, eager to know about the woman now, she had enough of the man. "Do you know who she is?"

Clive merely chuckled. "'Fraid I don't know much about constellations-"

"No," Rose laughed this time. "No, I mean the woman. When I met the Doctor, this woman was there, her name was Virgo. She came by yesterday, about the whole... shop dummy coming alive thing."

"I don't know who she is," Clive shrugged honestly. He was only aware of the immortal man, he never really saw anyone familiar in multiple pictures before, save a few people dressed oddly for the times. "I can look into her, if you want."

"No, it's fine," Rose shook her head quickly. "Really, it is. Fine."

Rose slammed the door in defeat in Mickey's car, feeling like she just wasted a good hour of her lifetime debating impossible things with some stranger. She buckled herself in, completely unaware that the man sitting next to her was a replica of Mickey.

Honestly, it wasn't that hard to tell. The Mickey next to her was a store mannequin that was using some paint for the victim's features. A smile was glued on permanently, eyes glued open, and _really_ shiny skin.

"All right, he's a nutter," Rose sighed. "Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak. You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza."

"Pizza!" the clone cheered, Rose still unable to tell the difference, even when she was looking at him. "P-p-p-pizza!"

"Or Chinese," Rose shrugged, resting her head on her hand, elbow resting on the armrest on the door, just ready to crash and eat something good.

"Pizza!" the clone started the car and drove completely out of control down the road, unlike the real Mickey, who could drive down in a straighter line than this.

So there they were, about two hours later, at some random restaurant, eating Italian. There was no pizza on the table, but there were some chips and spaghetti, but it looked a bit low class and not tasting all that good. Still, neither of them were picky eaters, so it was all fine. Of course, the clone wouldn't have a problem with any of the food, since it had no stomach in the first place. Actually, it wasn't even eating anything. Just staring creepily at Rose.

"Do you think I should try the hospital?" Rose asked it, popping a chip in her mouth. "Suki said they had jobs going in the canteen. Is that is then, dishing out ships? I could do A-levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?"

"So, where did you meet this Doctor and Virgo?" the clone asked, not at all paying attention to what she was saying, only wanting to hear about the whereabouts of his enemies.

"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" Rose blinked, not thinking that anything was wrong with 'Mickey,' but that the clone had changed the subject that wasn't about her.

"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right?" the clone pushed on. "Were they something to do with that?"

"No," Rose grimaced as she took a bit at the other meal, not wanting to talk about it.

"Come on."

"Sort of."

"What were they doing there?"

"I'm not going on about it, Mickey," Rose waved him off a bit harshly. "I'm not, because... I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think they're dangerous. Well, at least the Doctor more than Virgo."

"But you can trust me, sweetheart," 'Mickey' grabbed Rose's hands gently, using them as forced encouragement. He then said in a deep voice," Babe, sugar, babe, sugar." He cleared his throat and the volume was back to normal, something that didn't go unnoticed by a _clever_ Rose Tyler. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and Virgo and what they're planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."

"What're you doing that for?" Rose pursued her lips and studied the clone closely, as if the solution to the problem wasn't already in front of her.

"Your champagne," a male waiter in a leather jacket (bit odd, but nevermind that, right?) held out an unopened bottle to the clone.

"We didn't order any champagne," the clone denied it without looking at the waiter. "Where's the Doctor?"

"Miss, I have your clean knife," a female waiter came over to the scene, a shiny knife with a napkin over it to preserve its shininess.

"I don't need a knife," Rose waved her off, her, too, not looking up at them. Honestly, that was quite rude, refusing to have something without looking them in the eye. Humans! "Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I need to find out how much you know, so where are they?" the clone squeezed the blonde's hands until it almost became painful, noting how she was slightly wincing.

"It's a shiny knife," the waitress put the fork in front of Rose's face. "Just look how beautiful that shine is! Honestly, I put good work into it for that level of shininess. Do I get a promotion for this? Isn't that how waiters get promotions, by keeping things shiny? And does no one want that champagne? I had some, it's rubbish, but that's just my opinion."

"Look, we didn't order anything...," the clone finally grew irritated enough to look up at the waiters, trailing off when it saw that the so-called waiters were the Doctor and Virgo, both raising an eyebrow at how slowly it took for them to look up at them. "Ah. Gotcha."

The Doctor then shook the bottle up and down vigorously, "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" He opened the lid and pointed it at the clone, the top flying into the clone's forehead.

It made vibrations across the head, like a droplet landing in a glass of water. It absorbed the the top until it travelled into its mouth, then spit it out on the ground without a care. Virgo then proceeded to throw the knife at the place where the heart would be, but got the same result, spitting the knife out.

"Why did I know that was going to happen?" Virgo muttered to herself.

"Anyway," the clone shrugged as it stood up, morphing its hand into a chopper, smashing up the table. That caused Rose to scream and run away, also attracting the attention of fellow customers looking horrified. They, too, screamed and ran out of their seats.

The Doctor fought off the clone, eventually ending in him grabbing the head and yanking it off, much like with yanking off the Auton arm that had been stuck between the elevator doors. He got the head off, but it didn't do much good as it just said...

"Don't think that's going to stop me," its eyes blinked open, the body standing up from having been fallen over, and just created even more chaos.

Rose decided to do the smart thing and press her elbow against the fire alarm, creating a noise ruckus now. "Everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out!" She pulled her attention back to the strange duo, whom were now fleeing to the back exit. She dodged the body and followed after them.

The duo took no mind that the blonde was following them, as the Doctor sealed up the back exit with his grey wand, Virgo jogging toward the big blue box that had disappeared earlier. Rose ran over to the padlocked gate, yanking on the chains as if it would magically come off.

"Open the gate!" she shouted. "Use that tube thing. Come on!"

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor corrected calmly, strolling over to the police box, the door now unlocked and open thanks to Virgo, who was inside.

"Use it!" Rose pleaded, still tugging at the lock.

"Nah. Tell you what, let's go in here." He went on inside the box, leaving the door open for Rose, if she was clever enough to go inside and not stay in open view of the attacking Mickey body. By the way, it had reached the door and was pounding on it madly.

The blonde ran over to the box, not going in, but just staring at it. "You can't hide inside a wooden box. It's going to get us! Doctor! Virgo!"

She gave off a groan of frustration and ran back to the gate, trying to get it open with one last hope. She gave up, and ran into the box, expecting to be absolutely squashed inside.

That wasn't the case however, as it was _bigger on the inside_.

All it took was one look at the whole thing before running back outside in shock. She stared at the police box in awe, not giving a care that the clone was still smashing on the locked door, the thing about to give up stability any second now. Rose ran around the box, trying to debunk any invisible barriers or anything that could hide a room in a big, blue box. When she stood back in front of the doors, the body managed to break down the door, leaving Rose no choice but to run into the box.

"It's going to get us!" she stated the obvious as she shut the door and leaned on the rails, refusing to go any further into the room.

"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they tried," the Doctor stated, walking around the console, head in one hand and screwdriver in the other, scanning it. Now, shut up a minute."

It was a circular room with beams on four corners of the room and a bunch on the walls, creating sections where two rows of small circles were displayed everywhere. The floor was grating with some small support bars around the console. The console itself looked retro and even more alien-y than the actual console room. The time rotor was a bright blue that reflected a green light onto the controls. The panels under the controls were a similar blue that was on the rotor, it was just more bright.

"This is what's funny," Virgo chuckled, the Doctor giving her a mock-glare. "I let you scan the arm, and I seriously, honestly thought that it would actually give you something in return, but the head's actually a better tool to trace the signal to the original source." The Doctor just shook his head at her. "I'm sorry! But... this is kind of funny."

"Right," he just rolled his eyes at her. He'd have to get her back later, after this whole problem. He turned to Rose, hands behind back, like a gentleman. "Where do you want to start?"

"Er," the said girl blinked, trying to get her head clear from all this shock, "the inside's bigger on the outside?"

"The inside's another dimension than the outside is," Virgo shrugged.

"It's alien."

"Made _by_ them."

"Are _you two_ aliens?"

"Born and proud."

"Is that all right?" the Doctor asked her.

"Yeah," Rose quickly said, the events that happened five minutes ago coming back to her in full impact.

"It's called the TARDIS, this thing," the Doctor said, honestly thinking that the blonde was telling the truth. "T-A-R-D-I-S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

Rose finally broke down into tears, crying into her hand.

"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

"Did they kill him?" Rose suddenly asked. That's all she really wanted to understand right now, not the shop window dummy, not them being aliens, not the bigger-on-the-inside police box, none of it. It didn't matter to her anymore. Mickey was a victim of the dummies, and he could very well be dead right now. "Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"

"Oh, I didn't think of that," the Doctor frowned.

"He _should_ be alive," Virgo shrugged in thought. "Makes sense to keep the original alive in order to sustain the copy."

"He's my _boyfriend_ ," the human glared at the two of them. "You pulled his head off. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?!"

"Melt?" the Doctor questioned, turning around to check on the clone head's progress, but, as Rose just said, it was melting into the console. He quickly jumped into action, him trying to sustain the head while Virgo ran over to the scanners to check on the signal. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Hang on, Rose!" Virgo warned the human before setting the TARDIS in motion, Rose just having enough time to grab onto the railings for support in balance.

"What're you doing?" the girl questioned over the loud wheezing, groaning noise the box was producing, the sound familiar from when it disappeared on her earlier.

"Following the signal," the Doctor told her. "It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there, almost there. Here we go!"

After another three seconds of shaking, the TARDIS stilled to a halt, indicating that they have landed somewhere. The aliens made a mad dash to the doors, nearly knocking Rose off her feet.

"You can't go out there," she called after them, worried that the clone body might still be outside, waiting for them. "It's not safe!"

 **A/N** : I just wanted to say a quick thank you to those who reviewed... Oh, who am I kidding?! THANK YOU SO MUCH! It literally made me smile and brighten up my day, so as a thank you, besides giving you a virtual hug *hug*, I'm giving you chapter 2. For you to understand how happy your reviews made me feel, it was probably the same thing as a kindergartner finding out that there was no school today because it was a snow day :)

I appreciate your reviews very much, and criticism is welcome, as well. I'm glad to know that what I created today was something that people actually like, and that just... I feel like a better person right now! Ha! Anyway, I'm just going to day this for right now, I put a little, tiny, tiny hint in the last chapter. I'm really trying here to keep the twist a secret of my own, and I hope I'm not failing at it. I'm just really excited for one of the chapters that we'll be getting real soon :)

I'll be uploading one chapter every day, if you want to read this story, that is... I really should have put this in the first chapter, huh? Anyway, thank you for your reviews, and I hope you'll continue to read this with me :D


	3. Rose: Plastic Overload

Rose sighed, but nonetheless, followed after them. Didn't those aliens have any common sense? When something was outside and trying to kill you, you don't just go outside, you stay in your hiding spot until it leaves. That's how it's supposed to work.

That was not what Rose found. What she found was that they were on the Westminster Bridge, just next to the famous Thames River and Royal Air Force monument. It also happened to be night now, so apparently time speeds up when you're inside the TARDIS... Useful?

"We lost the signal, we got _so_ close," the Doctor whined, leaning on the parapet of the giant bridge in defeat.

"We've moved," Rose pointed out, eyeing everything suspiciously. "Does it fly?"

"Disappears there and reappears here," the Doctor waved her off. "You wouldn't understand." Talk about rude.

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose."

Virgo snapped her fingers at her. "That's the good part. The head melted with the body. Someone must have cleaned up the body's gue right about now."

"Are you going to witter on all night?" the Doctor said.

"I'll have to tell his mother," Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are aliens."

"I told you," Virgo rolled her eyes. "They have to keep Mickey alive to sustain the copy."

"Well the copy's failed, now didn't it?" Rose argued with her. "They can kill him now, no point in making another!"

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey-" the Doctor began.

"Yeah, he's not a kid."

"It's because we're trying to save the life of every _stupid_ ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"

"All right!"

"Yes, it is!"

Honestly, what was the human's problem? They're just trying to save the world, did Rose not think that he and Virgo were on her side? Because they were, they really, honest to God, really were on the human's side of this situation.

"If you two are aliens, how comes you sound like you're from the North and South?" the human asked, just noticing that the Doctor had a northern accent and Virgo a southern one.

"Are we supposed to sound like we never heard of this language?" Virgo countered. "We can talk in our own language, if that's what you prefer."

Rose just shrugged. That was... a good point. She turned her gaze back to the blue box, the TARDIS it seemed to be called. "What's a police public call box?"

The Doctor smirked and leaned against the precious ship, happy to show off for the first time in... awhile, actually. Huh. He really should take up another companion pretty soon, not that there was anything wrong with Virgo, but he just... needed to show off to someone who's never seen these kinds of things before. The girl was getting unsurprised by everything.

"It's a telephone box from the 1950s," he explained to Rose. "It's a disguise."

"Okay," Rose nodded slowly. "And this... this living plastic, what's it got against us?"

" _Against_ you?" Virgo blinked, thinking that it sounded absurd that the Autons would hate the humans. "What're you talking about? It's the opposite of that."

"You've got such a good planet," the Doctor added. "Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, prefect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein planets rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"Any way of stopping it?" the human asked, guessing that whatever a Nestene thing is it's the main control source for the living plastic.

In an answer to the question, the Doctor reached into the jacket, frowning when he couldn't find a tube inside of it. When he heard Virgo cough, he looked at her sharply and saw that she was wiggling the tube full of blue liquid inside with a smirk.

"Anti-plastic," Virgo said in amusement, the Doctor grumbling about something with the need to put deadlocks on his jacket.

"Anti-plastic," Rose sniggered at the Doctor's pout.

"Anti-plastic," the said man also said, snatching the tube out of Virgo's hand. "But first we've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on. Hide what?"

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?"

"Oh, I don't know," Virgo commented nonchalantly, staring up at the London Eye _casually_. "It's a huge circular, metal structure, perhaps like a wheel. It's pretty close to where we're standing."

"Must be completely invisible," the Doctor nodded, now seeing that Rose and Virgo were staring at something behind him. "What?" He turned around to face the London Eye, but he is just a bit thick. "What?"

Rose nodded to the Eye, but the Doctor is still oblivious at the transmitter right in front of him. "What? What is it? What?" He turns around one last time, finally seeing that the Wheel is the transmitter. "Oh. Fantastic!"

That's when the trio took off running across the bridge, people glancing up at the TARDIS, but not thinking that it could possibly be a bigger-on-the-inside time machine spaceship. It was safe where it was sitting.

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive," the Doctor said. "The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables-"

"The breast implants," Rose added with a playful smirk, causing Virgo to eye her oddly.

"Still, we've found the transmitter," he continued talking, choosing to ignore the human's odd comment. "The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

"What about down here," Rose pointed to a large manhole near the Eye, just by the bridge's entrance at the bottom of the stairs.

"Looks good to me," the Doctor agreed, the trio taking off down the stairs and up to the manhole. When they were down, Virgo opened up the hatch with her own sonic screwdriver, putting the lid somewhere to be forgotten about. Down in the hole, there was a ladder that lead down to a grating floor with a blazing red light inside.

"Talk about creepy," Virgo commented as Rose went first to climb down the ladder.

When all three of them were off the ladder, safe and sound from dropping to their deaths, they took in their new surroundings, _creepy_ surroundings. There was a giant vat in the corner with what Rose thought could be chunky lava and chains attached to the walls across it. The walls were made of red bricks and the stairs were to the left to go down to the vat.

"The Nestene Consciousness," the Doctor pointed to the giant vat. "That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."

"Well then, tip your anti-plastic and let's go," Rose tapped the railings with her hands, eager to go back up to the surface, a bit afraid that the ceiling was going to fall down on her.

"We can't possibly kill it when we know there's a chance it'll surrender on its own, which is the smart thing to do," Virgo shook her head as the Doctor was the first to descend down the stairs to talk to the Nestene.

"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation," he said like a professional politician. In response, the Nestene's lava formed a face and screeched loudly. "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"

Rose stared at him as though he was crazy, until a specific guy catches the corner of her eye. "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay! It's all right." She ran down the stairs and over to Mickey, where he was hiding behind some boxes and barrels.

He reached for her hands, uncontrollably shaking with fear. "That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!"

"You're stinking," Rose grimaced. "Doctor, Virgo, they kept him alive. You were right!"

"Well that's good, otherwise that would have been really embarrassing," Virgo laughed as she stood next to the Doctor, wanting to help him talk to the Nestene using the power of the TARDIS translation matrix.

"Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?" the Doctor rolled his eyes at them.

"Am I addressing the Consciousness?" Virgo spoke loudly to the vat. It screeched in response, so she smiled politely. "Thank you."

"If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?"

The Nestene didn't seem to like being told what to do by 'inferior' beings, so it screeched loudly, so loud that it'll probably make you deaf forever in both ears.

"Talk about constitutional rights all you want," Virgo invited, just daring the vat to argue some more. "But this is still an invasion. Look at these marvelous, beautiful humans who are only just learning to walk. They are capable of so much more than meets the eye, so on their behalf, just leave."

"Behind you!" Rose widened her eyes when she saw five plastic dummies stalk behind the two aliens, oblivious of what's behind them. Sadly, she shouted out the warning too late, as two dummies grabbed the Doctor, two for Virgo, and one of them grabbed the anti-plastic that was hiding in his leather jacket.

"Oh, great!" Virgo laughed sarcastically. "Thanks. This was just what we asked. Great job at surrendering!"

The Nestene just screeched once more, talking about how they were going to use the vial even if it did surrender its army across the world.

"That was just insurance," the Doctor told it, panicking slightly. This was not supposed to happen in the plan. "I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. We're here to help. We're not your enemy, I swear, we're not. What do you mean?"

A light switched on that appeared to look white since the whole room was blazing red, but truth be told, it was just a normal light. A door slid open to reveal the TARDIS in the spotlight, rarely ever getting that chance.

"No, of course that's not a weapon!" Virgo looked horrified at the idea of the TARDIS being used to kill. "That's just a ship. _His_ ship, I'm afraid I'm just along for the ride." She started to frown when the Nestene shrieked once more, talking about something that left a scar on both restrained aliens for life.

"That's not true," the Doctor argued. "I should know, we were there. We fought in the war. It wasn't our fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"

"What's it doing?" Rose asked, concerned at how angrily the Nestene was sounding and how upset both aliens looked.

"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion!"

"Get out of here, Rose!" Virgo told her, the human seeing fear in her eyes. "Don't worry about us. We'll be right behind you, just get you and your boyfriend out of here right now!"

Rose swallowed hard, but didn't make a move to take Mickey to go up the stairs (he was paralyzed with fear, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon), but she did take out her phone to dial a loved one. "Mum?"

"Oh, there you are," Jackie said in fake happiness, making Rose smile just a tiny bit at something familiar. "I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me."

"Where are you, Mum?" she asked quickly, unable to afford to sit through her mother's rambles.

"I'm in town!"

"No, go home! Just go home right now!"

"Darling, you're breaking up," Jackie lied with the shake of her head. "Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you later. Ta-ra!" And with that, she hung up, unaware of the danger she was stepping right into.

"Mum!" Rose gasped, unable to believe that it would probably be the last time she heard Jackie's voice. "Mum!"

Jackie put her phone back into her purse, a little concerned at how Rose was suddenly telling her to do something with urgency in her voice. It was probably nothing, of course. It never was.

She walked into Queens Arcade to shop for some clothes to put in her bigger-on-the-inside-but-not-really closet.

Meanwhile, the Nestene's face was thrashing about violently as the four metal poles surrounding the vat lit up with blue energy bolts, making the aliens widen their eyes and struggle harder against their restrainers.

"It's transmitting the activation signal!" Virgo quickly told Rose. Might as well tell the human what was going to happen rather than have her die without knowing what was going on. Best to be prepared, right?

"It's the end of the world," Rose breathed, Mickey clutching onto her like his life depended on it.

In the same store as Jackie, Clive and his family of three were walking past many windows of shop window dummies, them talking about spreadsheets or something like that.

"There's no point creating a spreadsheet if you're going to spend summer money in winter months," he told his wife, his son not listening, as the conversation didn't concern him, nor did it strike him as interesting.

One of the dummies moved their head, in the window that Clive's family was about to pass, making them stop walking and took their attention to the dummy.

"Oh, my God!" the wife breathed, putting a hand on her chest and another on her son's shoulder. "I thought they were dummies. I nearly had a heart-attack."

Every dummy in every window were now moving, getting more attention from more customers on the sidelines. A few moments later, one of them smashed their arm into the glass, making their grand entrance to kill them all.

Jackie was just coming down the escalator, frowning at the dummies that were breaking the glass, making customers scream and run for their lives as more and more broke free from their glass prison.

"It's true," Clive shouted, his wife and son backing away from the dummies. "Everything I read, all the stories. It's all true!" He turned around to meet a dummy face-to-face. Its fingers dropped, like a lid, revealing two little poles. It shot Clive, the dummies making their first blood of the night.

The wife, now the widow, screamed in horror.

The Nestene was getting ridiculously violent now.

"Get out, Rose!" the Doctor shouted at her. "Just get out! Run!"

"The stairs have gone," Rose pointed over to the flaming staircase, the aliens just noticing that the room was starting to catch fire. The Autons proceeded to push the aliens into the Nestene, which would resolve in a painful death of burning.

Rose pulled Mickey up to his feet, grabbed his hand, and lead him over to the blue box, hoping that she could open it and figure out how to pilot. It seemed she would never know because the door was locked.

"I haven't got the key!" she huffed in defeat.

"We're going to die!" Mickey clutched to Rose once again, sliding down against the box. She frowned as she looked around the room for anything to help out the Doctor and Virgo, who were resisting the Autons pushing.

More dummies were shooting more innocent customers, causing Jackie to snap herself out of shock and run away, dropping her bag on the escalator for a way outside. She put herself in the crowd of people at the entrance, everyone pushing each other out of the way for the sake of their own survival.

When Jackie made it outside, it didn't look any safer. She saw some bodies lying on the road, dummies walking around and shooting anyone they saw, and people running for their lives or hiding behind fallen cars.

She ran over to a car that was flipped on its side, unaware of the three bride mannequins that were starting to move in their own window. One of them smashed through, causing Jackie to turn around and scream.

"No!" the Doctor struggled harder than ever, seeing that Virgo had moved forward an entire foot toward the vat, much closer than before to burning to death.

Rose stood up, taking the matter into her own hands, and she knew exactly what to do. First problem: getting Mickey off her. Easy. Push him away and run away.

"Just leave them!" Mickey called after her, too scared to even go after his girlfriend. "There's nothing you can do!"

Rose shook her head as she grabbed an axe from the emergency supply and hacked at the chains. "I've got no A levels, no job, no future. But I'll tell you what I have got: Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastics team. I've got the bronze!"

She got the chain and wrapped her legs around it, preparing herself for a big swing. She ran off the ledge and swung into the air, managing to kick all the Autons to the floor, including the one that was holding the anti-plastic, which fell onto the Nestene, causing it to turn painfully blue.

"Rose!" the Doctor cheered as he caught her when she swung back over. Explosions left and right, which was the cue to start running. "Now we're in trouble."

Just when the brides were about to shoot Jackie, who was covering her face and squinting her eyes shut for preparation of death, they collapsed onto the concrete. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the 'corpses' before her, then shakingly stood up, seeing other people coming out from their hiding places, some of them crying from the devastation.

The trio ran up the other set of stairs to get to the TARDIS, Mickey clutching it tightly, needing something to hold onto if he was going to die. The Doctor unlocked the door, pushed the human inside, then everyone else got in. Virgo pulled a lever to dematerialize the box to a safe place away from the Nestene's lair.

The blue box materialized somewhere close by the Powell Estate. Mickey was the first one out, looking at the box in horror and running/tripping into a lone pallet, shaken by the events. Rose calmy walked out with her phone in her hand, calling her mother to see if she was still alive.

"Rose, Rose, don't go out of the house!" Jackie sighed in relief, just as thankful that Rose was alive as vice versa. "It's not safe. There were these things, and they were shooting! And they-" Rose had hung up on her. "Hello? Hello?"

The teenager nearly laughed when she finally saw Mickey, but pitied him a bit. It probably happened too fast for him to wrap his head around anything. She was like that earlier after finding out the TARDIS was a bigger-on-the-inside spaceship, so she understood what was going through his head.

The Doctor in the doorway of the box, Virgo not with him because she told him she had to check on something important. He couldn't guess what she needed to check in a million years, and she wasn't saying what it was, so he just let her go do it.

"A fat lot of good you were," Rose teased him.

"Nestene Consciousness?" he snapped his fingers with a smirk. "Easy."

"You were useless in there. You and Virgo'd be dead if it wasn't for me."

"Yes, we would," the Doctor's expression softened at that truth. "Thank you. Right then." He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "We'll be off, unless, er... I don't know... you could come with us. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe, free of charge."

"Don't," Mickey clung to Rose's leg. "They're aliens. They're _things_."

"He's not invited," the Doctor nodded to him, not liking how he said aliens, as if it was the most terrible thing in the universe. "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere."

"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asked him, starting to smile at the thought of it.

"Yeah," he nodded in excitement.

Mickey clung even tighter to her, making her realize something. She nearly had both him and her mother killed in the same night, how can she abandon them _now_? If it was a time machine, then, yeah, that would be a completely different story because she could be back here in 2-5 minutes and check up on them, but it wasn't.

"Yeah, I can't," she sighed, hating that she was denying this opportunity. "I can't. I've, er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so..."

"Okay," the Doctor nodded, but it was clear as day that he, too, was disappointed. "See you around." He stood there for a few more moments, letting Rose think about her decision, before stepping back inside the box and making the TARDIS disappear.

The humans watched the TARDIS dematerialize right in front of them, a small gust of wind blowing in their faces.

"Come on, let's go," Rose said sadly as she helped Mickey up to his feet. "Come on. Come on."

They walked three steps before the TARDIS materialized once more, Virgo's head sticking out from the doors.

"Are you sure he didn't mention it was a time machine as well?" she asked, smiling when she saw Rose's eyes brighten up.

The said girl turned back to Mickey, "Thanks."

"For what?" he frowned.

"Exactly," Rose kissed his cheek before turning around and running to the TARDIS, closing the door behind her.

A/N: So, I just realized that there aren't any scene breakers when I had put them in Docs and for some reason when I'm trying to add them, it doesn't show up on the thing, so apologies if you got confused when there was a scene change. Thank you for following and reviewing, it is _very_ much appreciated :) Thank you for reading!


	4. The End of the World: The Last Human

Rose ran right into the TARDIS happily, closing the door behind her, ready for anything that the two aliens put in her path. See, _this_ was what she called a good job to do: save the world in new surroundings instead of organizing clothes everyday.

"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me," the Doctor tossed a little cube in his hand as he stared intently at her, leaning on the console that could take them to literally anywhere. "Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time, it's your choice. What's it going to be?"

"Forwards," she said the first thing that popped into her mind. It wasn't like she had the entire day to plan out where she wanted to go.

"How far along do you want?" Virgo pressed a button, probably a setting to tune the box to the future.

"100 years."

The Doctor pulled a lever to dematerialize the box, but unlike last time, it was a much smoother and less bumpy ride. It was either because Virgo had set up the TARDIS before the Doctor could pilot it, or because it was a short trip, only 100 years. That's nothing compared to what the old box can do.

He pulled a lever and the TARDIS suddenly shook to a stop, throwing Rose even more into the console from having been holding onto it. "There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the 22nd century."

"You're kidding," Rose widened her eyes and looked between him and the door, unable to believe they actually time travelled instead of moving the box to another location. Oh! That explained it, then. That explains why it was nighttime when they materialized next to the Thames when it was daytime when the body was attacking them. She'd have to really remember that.

"But that's just too short," Virgo grimaced. "You could probably live to see the 22nd century if you try really hard, so I want your first trip to be somewhere you couldn't possibly get to. Shall we go even further?"

"Fine by me," Rose shrugged with a laugh. She didn't really care what point in history they take her to, she just wanted to see if the box really did time travel.

The Doctor pulled a lever and the box travelled through time, but held at it for a lot longer than last time. When he finally let it go, the stop force was a bit stronger, earning a grunt from the human.

"Ten thousand years in the future," he pointed to the doors. "Step outside, it's the year 12005: the New Roman Empire."

"You think you're so impressive," Rose teased him.

"I am so impressive."

"You wish!"

"I don't know about you, but I think that just screams a challenge," Virgo laughed at them. "I say to go even further."

"Right then, you asked for it," the Doctor smirked. "I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" He typed something on a classic typewriter, pressed some more buttons, then pulled the lever, making the TARDIS zoom through the vortex, but staying in the time limit, of course.

"And we're here," Virgo gestured to the doors, unsure of where the Doctor had taken them, so she went over to the monitor to see.

"Where are we?" Rose asked, eager to actually explore. "What's out there?" She ran to the doors when she was sure that the Doctor wasn't going to throw a surprise jump to the future and stepped outside.

The Doctor followed after her just when Virgo snapped her head up with wide eyes. She wanted to go further into the future, wanting to make the human's first trip in the TARDIS as memorable as possible, but to go _this_ far... it'll be memorable, alright, but the bad kind of it. She sighed, knowing that Rose was probably going to be upset by this, so she retrieved her sun hat off the captain's chair and walked over to the door.

They were on some sort of space station or satellite thing. The TARDIS was parked on a deck with stairs going down to the window in front of them, overlooking the Earth and sun, Mercury and Venus nowhere in sight. There were no more tiny satellites orbiting the planet, as they were taken back to it about three hundred years ago, since it's no use to it anymore.

Rose was staring at the planet in awe, unaware of what was about to happen to the sun, the Doctor standing right next to her with arms crossed.

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids, but you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive," he mused. "This is the year 5./apple/26. Five billion years into your future, and this is the day... Hold on." He glanced at his watch. When he looked up, the sun transformed from a main sequence star to a red giant, quite a beautiful sight, really. "This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."

Rose looked at him with wide eyes, then back at the dying planet, feeling as though someone just took her heart and let it drop off a five story building with no apologies afterward. Virgo, on the other hand, was staying next to the TARDIS, arms crossed and leaning against it.

SCENE BREAK

Outside, a few small spaceships boarded the space station, perfectly safe from the incoming flames with the shields up.

Inside, the trio were walking around the halls, Rose clearly all tensed up, the Doctor as happy as he can be, Virgo looking puzzled at something. She was trying to figure out the man's logic here. When she said go a little further, she literally meant go a little further, not billions of years further! And what made him think that Rose would want to see her own planet dying?! She was going to have to give him a little talk after they get back in the TARDIS.

" _Shuttles five and six, now docking_ ," the computer announced throughout the station. " _Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine, followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite._ "

"So, when it says guests, does that mean people?" Rose asked, having been paying attention to the announcement.

"Depends what you mean by 'people,'" the Doctor said.

"I mean... people," Rose eyed him oddly. "What do _you_ mean?"

"He means aliens," Virgo told her. "Why would your version of people be here to watch the planet burn?"

"What are they doing aboard this spaceship?" the human swallowed hard. "What's it all for?"

"Space _station_."

"More like an observation deck," the Doctor commented. "'The great and the good' are gathering to watch the planet burn." He walked over to a panel on the wall to open up the door next to it with his sonic screwdriver.

"What for?" Rose asked as the door slid up to the top, leading to a large room for more observation galleries.

"Fun," Virgo spat out the word with such disgust, becoming she was the first person to enter the room, the door not big enough to let them all pass through.

This room had a much larger window than the other room the TARDIS was in on the wall and on the ceiling, a few display cases of alien artifacts to show off the wealthness of the "people" here. It was pretty much empty, due to the fact that it was meant to be a little gathering room to watch the planet burn.

"And when he said 'the great and the good,' he meant the rich."

"But hold on," Rose looked around the room, relieved that it looked somewhat human architecture. "They did this once on _Newsround Extra_. The sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years."

"Millions," the Doctor agreed, "but the planet's now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there?" He pointed to a tiny group of something silver orbiting the dying Earth. "Gravity satellites holding back the sun."

"The planet looks the same as ever," Rose noticed. "I thought the continents shifted and things."

"The Trust shifts them back, though," Virgo said with a soft smile. Humans, they were thick, but they could be brilliant when they wanted to.

"That's a classic Earth," the Doctor agreed. "But now the money's run out, nature takes over."

"How long's it got?" Rose asked them, a little afraid of the answer, to be perfectly honest.

The Doctor glanced at his watch. "About half an hour, then the planet gets _roasted_."

"Is that why we're here? I mean, is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?" Virgo's hearts were nearly in the verge of breaking from seeing the hope in the girl's eyes.

"We're not saving it," the Doctor said in a serious tone, getting close to the human's face to make his point. "Time's up." He leaned back to look at the planet, Rose frowning.

"But what about the people?"

"They're all fine," Virgo smiled sadly at her. "Believe me, everyone's off the planet. It's been abandoned for about thirty years now. They've packed their bags and found other homes to live on past the Earth."

Before anyone could say anything else to each other, a blue-skinned alien strode over to them with a clipboard in his hand, looking surprised and angry at the same time. His eyes were like a cat, golden, with a brown robe with un-human-like touches to it. To anyone, he looked like the steward for the space station, but to Rose, he just looked scary and odd.

"Who the hell are you?" the Steward asked with authority in its voice.

"Oh, that's nice, thanks," the Doctor said sarcastically, not liking the tone the Steward was using to them.

"But how did you get in?" the alien looked around, as if his life was over if three people were in a room that they shouldn't be in. "This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's us," Virgo gave the Steward the psychic paper. "We're guests. That's our invitation with our plus one, Rose Tyler. I'm Virgo and that's the Doctor. That all right with you?"

"Well, obviously," the Steward said, now a lot calmer as he gave the paper back to Virgo, the Doctor snatching it from her hands once it was placed in them. "Apologies, et cetera. If you're onboard, we'd better start. Enjoy." He walked quickly over to a podium, putting his clipboard down when he got there.

"Why do you keep stealing my psychic paper?" the Doctor shook his head at Virgo, earning a laugh from the said person.

"'Cos it's fun to see your reaction," she countered.

"He's blue," Rose said, her eyes glued to the Steward, watching him set up.

"So?" Virgo furrowed her eyebrows, not seeing the problem. "It's a skin colour. Think what you look like to him."

"Okay," Rose nodded slowly, a good point, actually.

"We have in attendance the Doctor, Virgo, and Rose Tyler," the Steward announced into the microphone. "Thank you. All staff to their positions." A bunch of small blue-skinned aliens ran around the room, getting to their spots. "Hurry now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have Trees, namely, Jabe, Lute, and Coffa."

The door next to the podium rose up to reveal three humanoid aliens in a dress and formal clothing for the males. Their heads were long and pointy, green skin, and witch-like fingers. They entered the room gracefully, like nobles from a fairytale.

"There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors of Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon."

Once again, this was a blue alien, but it wasn't the same species as the Steward and the staff, simply because of the way its body was formed. He was a small guy, sitting on a pod that might as well be a wheelchair in human terms. Its head was bigger than its body, so you could just barely make out that the Moxx was even wearing clothes.

"And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme." These aliens were simply beings wearing black cloaks with metal fingers, acting very much like robots, but not really. "The inventors of Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you." Furry reptiles with odd walking postures. "Cal Spark Plug. Mister and Mrs Pakoo. The Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light..."

SCENE BREAK

After awhile of announcements, the Trees walked up to the trio, one of the males carrying a small box, the other male next to him, while the female appeared to be the one with authority as she was leading the two of them.

"The Gift of Peace," Jabe gave the Doctor a potted plant. "I bring you a cutting of my grandfather."

"Thank you," he handed the pot to Rose. "Yes, gifts." He patted his body for something he could give them. "Er..."

Virgo unclipped her bracelet to take off a bead from it and handed it to Jabe. "I bring you a fake pearl from my bracelet."

"How... thoughtful," Jabe eyed the bead, thinking that it was nothing special, but it'll have to do. She would have much preferred if the man had given her something, but what can you do?

"From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe," the Steward was still announcing guests.

The door opened once more to reveal what was literally a giant face stuffed into a tank. His eyes were big with a big nose and big lips, the face very wrinkled with age and time. It barely made it through the door as a couple of people helped Boe to the side of the room.

Meanwhile, the Moxx wheeled over to the trio, its little feet kicking up and down excitedly.

"The Moxx of Balhoon," the Doctor smiled happily, excited to communicate with someone new.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance," the Moxx said quickly with an odd voice. "I give you the gift of bodily saliva." It proceeded to spit on Rose's face, the girl grimacing and wiping it off with her sleeve.

"Thank you very much," the Doctor laughed as Virgo gave the blue man a fake pearl from her bracelet as 'a gift of peace.' The Moxx then wheeled away from them to give another species the gift of peace, the Adherents taking his place. "Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme."

"I bring you a fake pearl from my bracelet," Virgo held up her hand with the bead on it, but they seemed to ignore it.

"A gift of peace in all good faith," one of the Adherents gave Virgo a gray, metal ball. The Doctor took it and gave it to Rose, as she seemed to be the carrying girl.

"And last, but not least, our very special guest," the Steward announced. "Ladies and gentlemen, and Trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human: the Lady Cassandra O'Brien .Delta17."

The doors opened to reveal something not quite as human as everyone believed. There was a skin tank with the brain in some kind of liquid below, and a completely flat face stretched out. On either side of her were two men in hospital clothes, and some kind of gear in their hands.

"Oh, now, don't stare," Cassandra scolded everybody lightly as the men wheeled her forward. "I know, I know, it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away, and look at the difference! Look how thin I am! Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over 2,000. Moisturise me. Moisturise me." One of her attendants used the spray and moisturised her.

"Truly, I am the last human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth, and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them... and say goodbye." A tear rolled down her cheek. "Oh, no tears, no tears." The other attendant dabbed her tear stain away. "I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself: the last remaining ostrich egg." A member of the staff wheeled in the egg inside a display case. "Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fires from its nostrils... or was that my third husband?" Cassandra smirked and waited for laughter, but it never came. "Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity."

An old 50s jukebox got wheeled in. "According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

One of the attendants pressed a button, and "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell began to play out. The Doctor bobbed his head along with the music.

"Refreshments will now be served," the Steward announced. "Earth Death in thirty minutes."

Rose just shook her head, all of this being too much for her. She ran out of the room, not caring where, just anywhere where she can just be alone with no aliens. The Doctor and Virgo made a move to follow her, but Jabe intercepted them.

"Doctor?" she was holding some sort of camera, and she must have taken a picture because it made a flashing sound. "Thank you." She let them pass so she could look at the camera to see the results.

"A gift of peace in all good faith," the leader of the Adherent held out another metal ball to the Steward.

"No, you're very kind, but I'm just the Steward," the Steward blinked at him.

"A gift of peace in all good faith," the Adherent repeated in a cold voice.

"Well... yes," the Steward nodded hesitantly and took the ball. "Thank you. Of course."

Meanwhile, Jabe was pretty much arguing with her 'camera.' "Identify species." Chirp. "Please identify species." Chirp. She whacked her hand on it. "Now, stop it. Identify his race. Where's he from?" Multiple chirps. "It's... impossible." She looked at the corridor where the Doctor and Virgo vanished to with wide eyes, before heading off through the entry doors.

No one noticed the metal ball that was placed on the shelf open up, and a metal spider stepped out and scurried away from its nest.

SCENE BREAK

Rose had managed to find an empty room where she could just look out the window and stare at the Earth, probably thinking about something deep, like life and death or what the meaning to life was. Well, the room wasn't totally empty for long when a member of the staff wearing blue overalls and a baseball cap entered the room, seeming hesitant to do so.

"Sorry," she turned her head to the alien. "Am I allowed to be in here?"

The alien frowned and looked around the room, making sure that no one else could hear them. "You have to give us permission to talk," she whispered, her eyes pleading Rose to give her permission.

Rose blinked. Well whose idea what that, going so far as to needing permission to just talk? Now she was almost glad that no humans weren't on the station (excluding Cassandra, but she didn't really look human, did she?); now she could make bad comments to the Doctor about aliens whenever he said something insulting about the human race. Two could play that game.

"Er... you have... permission," Rose said, not knowing if that was how you were supposed to grant it.

The alien beamed, obviously thankful of the gesture. "Thank you. And, no, you're not in the way. Guests are allowed anywhere."

"Okay," Rose nodded awkwardly, the alien taking that opportunity to walk further into the room and crouched in front of a small vent on the wall, low to the floor. She unlocked it with a key and placed the lid to the side. "What's your name?"

"Raffalo," the alien, Raffalo, answered as she worked.

"Raffalo?" the human asked, hoping that she heard that right because that was an odd name to have, but to Raffalo it was probably as common as 'Sally' or 'Tommy.'.

"Yes, miss," Raffalo nodded. "I won't be long. I've just got to carry out some maintenance. There's a tiny, little glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system, he's not getting any hot water."

"So... you're a plumber?"

"That's right, miss."

"They still have plumbers," Rose nearly laughed at how that was still familiar.

"I hope so, else I'm out of a job," Raffalo agreed with a pure laugh, unlike the human.

"Where are you from?"

"Crespallion."

"That's a planet, is it?"

"No," Raffalo put down a tool so she could explain it properly to Rose. "Crespallion's part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, Convex 57. And where are you from, miss, if you don't mind me asking?"

Rose chose not to question further about the Jaggit thing or 57 Convex... other way around... it was probably common knowledge to everyone here, so she didn't want to sound like an idiot.

"No, not at all," she shook her head. "Er, I don't know. A long way away. I just sort of hitched a lift with these people... I didn't even think about it. I don't even know who they are. They're complete strangers..." Raffalo frowned slightly at the way that Rose was staring into space in shock, before shaking her head a few moments later. "Anyway, don't let me keep you. Good luck with it."

"Thank you, miss," Raffalo thanked. "And er, thank you for the permission. Not many people are that considerate."

"Okay," she nodded. "See you later." Rose left the room, Raffalo turning back to the vent.

"Now then," she lifted her comm. that was sitting by her neck to her mouth. "Control, I'm at junction nineteen, and I think the problem's coming from in here. I'll go inside and have a look."

She scooted back a bit so she could slide into the conduit, but then heard some scurrying from within it. "What's that? Is something in there?"

She watched as a metal spider peered around the corner. "Oh! Who are you, then?" The spider scurried away.

"Hold on! If you're an upgrade, I just need to register you, that's all. Oh, come back." She crawled half of her body inside the conduit before the spider returned. "Ah, there you are. Now, I just need to register your ident." The spider stood in the corner, as another spider appeared alongside it. "Oh, there's two of you. Got yourself a little mate. I think I'd better report this to Control. How many of you are there?" To her horror, a lot more spiders appeared around the corner.

"What are you?" The spiders charged at her, and Raffalo panicked and tried to crawl out, but it was impossible to do it quickly. "Oh, no, no, no!" The spiders dragged poor Raffalo into the conduit...

A/N: Okay, I think I have figured out the scene break situation. It's not pretty, but it works, right? Fingers crossed that it actually shows up on the final version.

Thank you very much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I was surprised when I even got one review, and now I've got a favorite and people following the story... it's just a great feeling and it's making me smile so much more through the day :) So, honestly, those are all appreciated :)

Nothing new in this chapter, but in the next one Virgo and the Face of Boe have a little talk with each other, and interesting words are shared, so stick around for that :)


	5. The End of the World: Someone Knows

A/N: Sorry, just a quick author's note right here. This isn't really important for the whole lot of you, but JemmaPOND, I am indeed getting your reviews, so don't worry :)

The Steward was sitting in his office in front of his desk with a large, futuristic, alien-ish computer, placing down the ball the Adherents had given him earlier. A window was behind him, but it was more facing the sun than it was the Earth, which kind of made having a window in here pointless, since the reason the window was there in the first place was to watch the Earth die.

He placed the ball next to the computer, which burbled at him in some alien language, and apparently it must be a bit angry at him.

"What's that?" the Steward leaned in to it to try to hear it clearer. "Well, how should I know?" He pressed a button that was connected to a similar microphone on the podium, except it was to make announcements with. "Would the owner of the blue box in private gallery fifteen please report to the Steward's office immediately? Guests are reminded that use of teleportation devices is strictly forbidden under Peace Treaty 5.4/cup/16. Thank you."

He lifted his hand off the button and turned his chair around to look out into space, unnoticing that the metal ball had hatched and produced a metal spider.

SCENE BREAK

" _Earth Death in 25 minutes. Earth Death in 25 minutes._ "

Rose was sitting where they had landed the TARDIS in, except the said box wasn't here anymore for reasons unknown to her. At first she thought that the aliens that brought her here had abandoned her, but she knew that they weren't that heartless. And if the box wasn't there, that meant that they were looking for it, which means more alone time for her... with a potted plant and a ball.

"Oh thanks," she scoffed at the announcement. Who said that she wanted to know when her own planet was gone? She put down the metal ball she had been playing with behind her and grabbed the potted plant. "Hello. My name's Rose. That's a sort of plant... we might be related." She blinked. "I'm talking to a twig." She sighed and placed it on her other side, not seeing the ball hatch out a metal spider.

SCENE BREAK

Virgo and the Doctor were in the halls, watching the TARDIS being wheeled to a place where it wouldn't be in the middle of the room by some staff members. They had a little chat with the Steward, telling him that the TARDIS was perfectly safe and it may be a teleportation device, they promised they wouldn't use it. So the Steward had believed them and ordered the staff to bring it somewhere where no one would stumble upon it.

"Oi, now, careful with that," the Doctor told them. "Park it properly. No scratches."

One of the staff came running over and gave him a line-y ticket, faintly reading 'Have A Nice Day.' Once again, no one noticed a metal spider running across the ceiling.

SCENE BREAK

A metal spider was scanning Rose's hand with a red light on silent, but it scuttled away in fear of the Doctor's voice from the hallway, knowing that he was about to come in and point at the spider if it didn't get away fast enough.

"Rose?" he called out. "Are you in there?" He entered the room with Virgo hot on his tail. "Aye, aye. What do you think, then?" He sat on the deck, eager to hear her answer, while Virgo remained standing, staring sadly at the Earth in front of them.

"Great," Rose shrugged absently. "Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper."

"There's something more, isn't there?" Virgo guessed, knowing that look that Rose was wearing. It was the look that just screamed 'I've just seen a monster, but I know it's supposed to be alright, but I just can't help it.'

"They're just so alien," Rose blurted out, causing the Doctor to raise an eyebrow. "The aliens are so... alien. You look at 'em... and they're alien."

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South," he joked with the shake of his head.

"Where are you two from?" the human suddenly asked, now just having realized that they could be the same species, or they could be totally different ones and she wouldn't ever know. "Are you the same... type of aliens?"

"We're the same," Virgo confirmed with a nod. "We're from far away, as we said a few hours ago. Just passing through the Earth and onwards."

"They all speak English."

"No, you just _hear_ English," the Doctor explained. "It's a gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates."

Rose widened her eyes, "It's inside my brain?"

"Well, in a good way."

"Your machine gets inside my head," she glared at them. "It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"

"It's not a bad thing, honestly," Virgo reassured her, but both of them knew she wasn't doing a good job. "The TARDIS doesn't look at your deep, dark secrets or anything, just helps you see things more clear."

"No, he was too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South and you were too busy fixing up your bracelet," Rose argued. "Who are you two, then? What are you called, Doctor? What sort of aliens are you?"

"I'm just the Doctor," he shrugged, not seeing what her problem was.

"From what planet?"

"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!"

"Where are you from?!"

"What does it matter?

"Tell me who you are!"

"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right?" the Doctor shouted. "All that counts is here and now, and this is me!"

"Yeah, and I'm here, too, because you brought me here, so just tell me!" Rose demanded.

Instead of getting answers, the Doctor stood up in frustration and stormed over to the window, looking very cross. Rose sighed and stood up, knowing she probably had to apologize now or something like that.

" _Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes._ "

"Are you two done, now?" Virgo asked, having not moved from her spot. She didn't like arguments, so whenever she witnessed one, she always stayed quiet. It wasn't her thing, mainly because she couldn't come up with good comebacks and she liked having peace in everyone.

"All right, as my mate, Shareen, says, don't argue with the designated driver," Rose muttered, earning a chuckle from the Doctor. She pulled out her phone and tried to turn it on, but the screen remained black. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range, just a bit."

"Tell you what," the Doctor took her phone and took out Virgo's sonic screwdriver. "With a little bit of jiggery-pokery."

"Is that a technical term, jiggery-pokery?" Rose joked, sensing that the atmosphere was getting happier.

"Hold on a minute!" Virgo climbed down the stairs and walked over to the Doctor, snatching her sonic out of his hand. "When did you take this?"

He just smirked. "Two can play that game."

She just laughed evilly, "All right, but be warned, you have just declared war." She took Rose's phone from him and finished up what the Doctor was doing. A moment later, she gave it back to the human. "Call someone."

Rose eyed them as she turned it on, surprised that she now had a signal. She called her mother and put the phone up to her ear, even more surprised that it was ringing.

"Hello?" Jackie answered, sounding like she was doing some laundry.

"Mum?" Rose breathed.

"Oh, what is it?" Jackie asked, exasperated. "What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top's falling to bits. You should get your money back. Go on. There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day." Rose started to laugh, so relieved to hear her mother's voice. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," she shook her head, smiling away. "You all right, though?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"What day is it?"

"Wednesday, all day. You got a hangover? Oh, I'll tell you what: put a quid in that lottery syndicate. I'll pay you back later."

"Yeah, er, I was just calling 'cos... I might be late home," Rose said slowly, not really knowing when the Doctor and Virgo would drop her back to her flat.

"Is there something wrong?" Jackie paused in the folding, frowning at her daughter's vagueness in her words.

"No, I'm fine," Rose shook her head. "Top of the world." She and the Doctor and Virgo chuckled quietly at the inside joke before Jackie hung up on her. Rose took the phone from her ear and absently stared at the Earth.

"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill," the Doctor said.

"That was five billion years ago," Rose realized in awe. "So... she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."

"Bundle of laughs, you are," the Doctor commented, staring at Rose as if she just made an attempt at an inspirational quote and failed horribly.

The whole of Platform One then started to shake, like turbulence on a plane. The trio nearly fell onto the floor if they hadn't caught themselves with their feet and arms.

"That's not right," Virgo fixed her hat up. "Space stations aren't supposed to be bumpy, they're supposed to be calm."

SCENE BREAK

The Steward, himself, was looking as if the whole Platform was being weighed on his shoulders, in other words, he was panicking a tiny bit... quite a bit... okay, he was really panicking. He was currently arguing with Control, hoping to get some answers from them, but they seemed as confused as he was.

"Well, what was it?!" he demanded, knowing he was going to have to tell the guests _something_ so they wouldn't be panicking as bad as him. "I'm just getting green lights at this end." He thought a quick moment for what could be a good excuse, and when he had one, he said into the microphone, "Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you."

He lifted his hand off the button, going back from a steady, calm voice to a scared, slightly angry voice. "The whole place _shook_! I've hosted all sorts of events on Platforms One, Three, Six, and Fifteen and I've never felt the slightest tremor. I warn you, if this lot decide to sue..." He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm going to scan the infrastructure."

He made a move to proceed to do exactly that, when the sound of metal scuttling across the desk or floor, he really didn't know, came across his ears, making him pause.

"What's that? Control, I don't want to worry you, but I'm picking up readings. I have no idea. Well, they're small. The scan says they're metal. I don't know what they look like!"

As if to counter that last part of what he said, he was probably the first person in all of Platform One to actually see the metal spider scuttle over to him, the red light on what might be its head staring at him.

"Although, I imagine they might look rather like that. You're not on the guest list. How did you get on board?"

The spider didn't speak, if it could, which was unlikely, but would be pretty cool if it did, and just pressed a big, red button (the big, red button that must never be pressed, that kind of a button) that was right next to the computer with its leg.

"No," the Steward breathed in horror, paralyzed with fear at what the spider just did.

" _Sun filter deactivated._ "

"No!"

" _Sun filter descending._ "

What the announcement and the red button that was big meant that it would lower the window and shield, exposing the Steward to extreme heat, since they were very close to the sun, and it _was_ turning into a red giant, so it was even _hotter_.

The Steward panicked (who wouldn't in that situation) and repeatedly pressed the button, hoping that it would raise the window and shield, but it wouldn't work. The heat beam just got lower and lower toward him.

"No!" he screamed with pure terror. "Sun filter, up! No, no, no!"

" _External temperature 4,000 degrees._ "

"Control, respond! Sun filter up! Argh!"

The Steward burnt to death, a very painful way to go, while the spider that caused the ruckus escaped through a tiny vent, escaping with a burnt mark here and there and smoking hot, as it was metal and the cause of death was heat, so... you know?

SCENE BREAK

The time travelling trio entered the main gallery, where the guests were talking about something about a Bad Wolf scenario, whatever that was. The Moxx was saying it, so it was probably going to be something not true at all. The Steward's final announcement seemed believable to them, as everyone seemed very calm and listened to what the Moxx had to say about the conversation topic.

"Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario," he told them. "I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse..."

"That wasn't a gravity pocket," the Doctor announced, half the people not paying attention while the other half merely glanced at him. "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal," Jabe shrugged as she made her way over to them, very, _very_ curious of the Doctor now ever since she read the information the scanner/camera thing told her. Okay, she was still interested him before, but now for different reasons. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" he asked her.

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife," Jabe nodded between him and Virgo.

"We're not married," Virgo frowned, visibly uncomfortable with that statement. Did they look like a married couple, or was that just an honest guess to compare the two of them?

"What about her, then?" Jabe nodded to Rose, who had also grown uncomfortable.

"No," the Doctor shook his head.

"Partner?"

"No."

"Concubine?"

"Nope."

"Prostitute?"

"Whatever we are, it must be invisible," Rose snapped at Jabe. "Do you mind? Tell you what, you three go pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." She turned and walked toward Cassandra, who was staring out the window.

"Don't start a fight," the Doctor called after her.

"And I'm going to have a talk with the Face of Boe," Virgo nodded her head behind Jabe, where the said Face was in the corner, her having caught him watching them.

"Really?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "It's just a quick trip to the engine room. You sure you don't want to go down and learn something?"

"Like you said, it's just the engine room," Virgo shrugged. "Not that exciting for me. And besides, the bump was probably nothing at all, probably some ship crashing into the side. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," the Doctor sighed, watching her smile and walk away to the Face of Boe. He turned back to Jabe and offered his arm to her. "I'm all yours." She smiled politely and wrapped her arm around his and lead him to the corridor.

" _Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes._ "

SCENE BREAK

A little while later, Virgo was crossing her arms and staring intently at the Face of Boe while was just smirking away at her. The two were having... an interesting conversation with each other.

"Are you from the future, is that how you know?" she demanded desperately. She was trying very hard to keep this a secret, but if the Face of Boe knows... is it really that obvious? Or, OR, did she meet a past version of him and she spilled the beans to him, so that in the future, Boe could tell her that he knows and create an endless paradox.

" _Indeed I am_ ," the Face responded telepathically with a nod, the only thing he could do these days. " _I am from your future, as you are from my past. And don't worry, your secret's safe with me. It has always been._ "

Virgo sighed with relief. So it _wasn't_ obvious? She could just keep going like this for a little while longer! Oh, that was _brilliant_!

" _And there's nothing to be ashamed of_ ," the Face of Boe added, causing Virgo to stiffen.

"Ashamed?" she scoffed unconvincingly. "When have I ever been ashamed of anything? I'm only only just slightly upset about it because..." She trailed off when she saw Rose storm out of the gallery, obviously having just argued with Cassandra about something. She turned back to Boe, "I'll talk to you about it later. Oh, and _no_ , absolutely _no_ telling anyone, all right? Can I trust you, Boe?"

" _You have in the past_ ," the Face of Boe smiled, understanding her concern with Rose. He had lived it, after all... oh, such a long time ago. " _I don't see why you shouldn't now. Good luck, Virgo._ "

Virgo gave him a small smile before jogging after Rose, her concern rising. She knew it couldn't be good for the girl. Experiencing a whole room of aliens and Cassandra claiming that she was the 'last' human couldn't be good for her, and she might want to go home after this, and she really didn't want Rose to leave. The human was funny, innocently curious, and liked to amaze them, like the Doctor used to enjoy as well.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor and Jabe had reached the maintenance duct, where the Doctor was sonicing a panel to open the locked door in front of them. They were talking about simple, common things so that the journey ahead of them wouldn't be in total, awkward silence (which rarely happens around the man).

"So tell me, Jabe, what's a Tree like you doing in a place like this?" the Doctor asked as he did some 'jiggery-pokery' upon the magic door.

"Respect for the Earth," was all she told him.

"Oh, come on," he scoffed. "Everyone on this Platform's worth zillions." Zillions was probably an understatement for Cassandra.

"Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions," Jabe shrugged, not denying what he just said completely.

"In case your share prices drop?" he raised an eyebrow. "I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots, everywhere, and there's always money in land."

"All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest. And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two... Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say... how _sorry_ I am."

She placed a hand on the Doctor's elbow, squeezing it as a tear shed from his eye and down it cheek. He blinked it away and finally got the door open to the engine room.


	6. The End of the World: Chips are Good

The Doctor and Jabe entered the engine room, where they were met with a catwalk and three giant, absolutely enormous fans nearly touching the floor of the catwalk, a small lever in the opposite wall. Now who designed this room?! Honestly, if you're going to put up a catwalk to some majestic lever that probably did nothing at all, at least make it accessible. If you need the fans, put them higher up, not low enough where someone could get their head chopped off or thrown off the platform and down to God knows where.

"Is it me, or is it a bit nippy?" the Doctor joked. "Fair do's, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro."

SCENE BREAK

Rose was walking down a hallway, the Adherents of the Repeated Meme coming toward her casually. She just gave them a polite, small smile, but that wasn't the case for the black cloaked people. One of them used their metal hands to slap the human's face, just hard enough to knock her out.

That was when Virgo entered the hallway at the far end, then quickly running out from view so the Adherents wouldn't see her. Not that she wasn't afraid if they saw her, she just needed to make sure they weren't going to kill Rose right then and there. If they took her to a room, she could easily pick the lock and get her out once she's woken up.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor scanned a panel that was off to the side, hoping that he could slow down the fans so he could see what the lever in the far end could do, but as he pulled off the top, a metal spider jumped out and crawled up the pipes quickly. He and Jabe turned their bodies to watch it go in confusion.

"What the hell's that?" the Doctor squinted, trying to see it dance along the pipe as it observed them with its red light or eye, no one knew what that could be.

"Is it part of the retro?" Jabe asked him, her, too, staring at it.

"I don't think so," the Doctor laughed, aiming his screwdriver at the lunk of metal. "Hold on." Before he could turn it on, it was Jabe's turn to show off with her long, flexible tongue to capture the spider and bring it back expertly, like a proper cowboy would do. "Hey, nice liana." He took the spider from her and examined it closely.

"Thank you," Jabe smiled at him. "We're not supposed to show them in public..."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody. Now then, who's been bringing their pets onboard?"

"What does it do?"

"Sabotage," he said with disgust.

" _Earth Death in ten minutes. Earth Death in ten minutes._ "

"And the temperature's about to rocket," the Doctor nodded his head to the door. "Come on." He took off running, Jabe following closely behind him.

SCENE BREAK

Cassandra... is 'stood' the correct word? Cassandra was... staying in the middle of the room, beaming at the window, about to make her announcement, "The planet's end. Come gather, come gather. Bid farewell to the cradle of civilisation. Let us mourn her with a traditional ballad."

Someone hit the play button on the jukebox, the great 'iPod,' and "Toxic" by Britney Spears started to play. An... interesting mourning song.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor and Jabe stood outside the Steward's office, the tiny staff also there, trying to see into the window to understand what happened, but it was pretty clear that the Steward had burned to death by a descending sun filter.

"Hold on, get back," the Doctor pushed his way forward to the small panel next to the door to get the sun filter to rise to get inside.

" _Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising._ "

"Is the Steward in there?!" Jabe widened her eyes in absolute horror.

"You can _smell_ him," the Doctor nodded sadly. "Hold on, there's another sun filter programmed to descend." He took off running again, Jabe following. The Doctor's life: an awful lot of running to do with no breaks.

SCENE BREAK

" _Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending._ "

Rose awoke with a wince, her head absolutely _pounding_ , her eyes blurry from the bright room. She remembered she was walking in a hallway, just having an argument with 'the last' human, Cassandra, minding her own business. The Adherents were walking toward her, and... just black after that. So, what happ-

Oh. _Oh_. She was going to have a little chat with them after she got out of here. And wait a minute... sun filter _descending_? _Oh!_

She sat up immediately and saw that the window and shield were slowly, well, descending, letting the intense heat into the room with a glare of light to signal where the death zone was. She wasn't sure if she was thankful for that feature so that she'll know when she'll burn to death or if she was dreading it because she didn't want to know how slow it will be.

Rose stood up and ran, nearly tripping, up the small flight of stairs and to the door, which, unsurprisingly, was locked. Instead of trying to find a panel or button that would open it up, she just hammered the door with her fists, hoping someone would hear her.

"Let me out!" she shouted. "Let me out!"

" _Sun filter descending._ "

"Working on it, Rose," she heard Virgo's voice from behind the door, making her a little bit more relieved, but still frightened of the incoming glare of heat and light. "Just sit tight for me, okay?"

"Let me out!" she continued to panic, looking between the door and the glare of light.

" _Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending._ "

That's when the Doctor came running as fast as he could over to Virgo, seeing that she was really struggling with something and there were only so many guesses as to what she was doing. Jabe came into the picture a few moments later, running more slowly due to the long dress and not enough exercise in running. Who could blame her? Running wasn't fun, it was just tiring and sweaty work.

"Who's in there?" he asked Virgo, her smiling in relievement as she stepped away.

"Can you do this?" she asked him quickly. "I'm no good with these kind of things."

"Let me out!" Rose continued to shout, sensing that Virgo wasn't working on the stupid door anymore. They didn't have time for a chat! _She was about to die_!

"Oh, well, it would be you," the Doctor rolled his eyes and took out the sonic, working on the panel to unlock the door or to raise the shield and windows. For starters, he needed to raise the shields, much safer that way, and if it came down to it, he would try to get the door open.

"Open the door!"

"Hold on. Give us two ticks."

The glare of light had, by this point, reached the top of the door, so Rose pounded even harder and started to sink down to the floor, trying her hardest to not touch the light as for as long as she could, but in about thirty seconds or a minute, she'd be toast.

" _Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising._ "

Rose sighed in relief, until...

" _Sun filter descending._ "

She was in panicking mode once again and pounded the doors, not noticing that her hands were hurting and would probably have bruises later... if she was alive whenever 'later' would be.

"Just what we need," the Doctor grumbled in frustration, Jabe looking very worried for the human inside the burning room. "The computer's getting clever."

"Stop mucking about!" Rose hollered, the glare coming real close to her head now.

"I'm not mucking about. It's fighting back!"

"Open the door!"

" _I know!_ "

Rose looked between the glare and the door, deciding the smart thing to do would be to run down the stairs and get herself as flat as she could possibly be, which meant laying on the ground, covering her head with both hands, preparing to feel the heat (the death heat, it was already pretty hot in the entire room).

"The lock's melted!" she called out, wondering if that would be any use. Well, if the lock's melted, that meant that the door would now be unlocked, as the door was locked thanks to the, well, lock. If she ran over to the door, she could probably kick it down and run out of there, but there probably wasn't enough time left to do that.

" _Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising._ "

Rose got up and ran over to the door, widening her eyes at the damage the glare of light made to it. Half of it was burnt black, smoking hot with small sparks of fire. Oh, it would be a _very_ painful death. She shuddered at the thought of it.

"The whole thing's jammed," the Doctor sighed in more frustration. "I can't open the doors. Stay there! Don't move!"

"Where am I going to go, Ipswitch?" she scoffed. There wasn't exactly another door in the room, not even a bathroom! Talk about bad architecture.

" _Earth Death in five minutes._ "

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor, Virgo, and Jabe had gotten everyone to gather around in the main gallery room to make their announcement about the sabotage, the person or thing behind the sabotage, and the fate of the Steward and what will be the fate of everyone else on board if no one did anything in the next five minutes.. literally, five minutes.

"The metal machine confirms," Jabe declared. "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."

"How's that possible?" Cassandra thought aloud. "Our private rooms are protected by a code wall." She glanced at her little helpers. "Moisturise me, moisturise me."

"Summon the Steward," the Moxx of Balhoon suggested, other aliens nodding along with the idea, now knowing that he was... well...

"I'm afraid the Steward is dead," Jabe told them sadly, everyone gasping, meaning that whoever was behind the spiders were faking shock, something easy to identify on someone.

"Who killed him?" the Moxx squeaked out.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe," Cassandra accused him, narrowing her eyes. "He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face!" Boe merely just shook his head, Virgo glaring at the woman. She may not totally know the Face of Boe properly, but if he knew about her little secret, then she clearly trusts him very much in the future, so she will defend him at all costs.

"Easy way of finding out," the Doctor shrugged. "Someone brought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to Master." Jabe handed him the metal spider, him putting it down on the floor to see who the mastermind behind the sabotage was.

It went over to Cassandra and her assistants, the said woman raising an eyebrow at it, as if wondering how it could possibly think that it was her who set this whole thing up. It was her planet, after all. She'd want people to see Earth to its very last second of life... right? The spider made a few noises before changing its mind and scuttling over to the Adherents of the Repeated Meme, all standing stiffly and unmoving.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme," Cassandra narrowed her eyes, hoping that everyone would forget that the spider went over to her first. "J'accuse!"

"That's just a bit too predictable, don't you think, _Cassandra_?" Virgo crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean, they've even got the look to them: black clothes, face not visible, too quiet, and just a little too persistent. But if you just take a closer look... Doctor?"

The Doctor took the honor of strolling over to the Adherents, one of them about to raise their arm to attack him, much like with Rose, but he just took hold of the arm and pulled it off, revealing the Adherents to be simple robots.

"A Repeated Meme is just an idea," he summed up. "And that's all they are: an idea." He tugged one of the wires out from the arm, causing all of the Adherents to collapse to the ground, deactivated for good. "Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo." He nudged his foot to the spider encouragingly. "Go home."

The spider crawled over to Cassandra, just as the Doctor and Virgo (perhaps even Jabe, she's a pretty clever Tree, no reason for her not to get that Cassandra was the evildoer). The 'last' human huffed in annoyance.

"I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed," she glared at the Doctor. "At arms!" The helpers raised their moisturizer sprays and aimed them at him, them probably robots, too, since no one could see their face.

"What are you going to do, moisturise me?" the Doctor mocked, putting his hands on his chest in fake shock, causing a chuckle from Virgo.

"With _acid_ ," Cassandra sneered. "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not _just_ a pretty face."

"Why would you sabotage the same ship you're on?" Virgo asked her. "What benefit would that have gotten?"

"I'd hope to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous." If Jackie were here right now, the two would have gotten on very well with the talk of compensation.

"Five billion years and it _still_ comes down to money," the Doctor said in disappointment. Money wasn't everything. Sure, you could buy some stuff with it, but it doesn't buy you happiness; friendship and family do, no matter how much money you've got. If people could just see that sooner, this universe would be so much better.

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I _am_ the last human, Doctor. Me. Not that freaky kid of yours."

Virgo shook her head with a sigh. Oh, Rose. Rose-y Rose Rose, when doesn't she ever try and make herself important?

"Arrest her, the infidel-" the Moxx had demanded, but Cassandra had rudely cut him off. Seriously, rude.

"Oh, shut it, pixie," she rolled her eyes. "I've still got my final option."

" _Earth Death in three minutes._ "

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? 'Burn, baby, burn.'"

"Then you'll burn with us," Jabe argued.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Cassandra said sheepishly. "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden... but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate."

Nothing more could be said after that, as the spiders somehow managed to cause some explosions in the space station, causing the whole the thing to rock everyone off their balance for a moment or two, until it settled back down again.

"Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick... just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me. Bye bye, darlings. Bye bye, my darlings." She and her assistants disappeared in a blue light.

" _Heat levels rising._ "

"Reset the computer!" the Moxx quickly turned to the trio, desperate for survival, like everybody else was.

"Only the Steward would know how," Jabe shook her head sadly.

"No," the Doctor suddenly said, just remembering the lever that was in the engine room, behind the stupidly placed fans. "We can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Jabe, Virgo, come on. You lot, just chill."

The three of them got out of the gallery room in search of the engine room once again, the rest of the guests gathering around the window viewing the exploding sun and soon-to-be roasted Earth.

" _Heat rising. Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes. Heat levels critical._ "

SCENE BREAK

" _Heat levels critical._ "

The trio of aliens reached the engine room, all of them noticing right off the bat that the fans, still ridiculously placed, were spinning rapidly, barely even seeing the fan, itself. They saw the lever at the end of the catwalk, its placement was just screaming out, "Come get me, you idiots. I'm in an impossible place. What are you going to do about it?"

"Oh, and guess where the switch is," the Doctor pointed to it.

" _Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising._ "

Virgo looked between the panel and the fans, walking over to the switch that was on the panel, merely guessing that it would slow down the fans, and when she pulled it, it confirmed her suspicions. So, thinking that it would stay put, she took her hand off the lever, but it bounced back up to its original spot and the fans were back to lightning speed.

" _External temperature 5,000 degrees._ "

Virgo sighed, putting both hands back on the lever and kept them there, knowing that she wasn't going to enjoy the next minute or two. She could let Jabe do it for her own sake, but Jabe was made of _wood_ , she wouldn't last as long as she would. Besides, Time Lords have good resistance to freezing and extremely hot temperatures. This shouldn't be too bad... if the Doctor doesn't take his time.

"You can't," he shook his head at her, not wanting this place to cause her harm. "The heat's going to vent through this place."

"I think that's why _I'm_ holding it down," Virgo nodded, as if it was obvious. "Go, I'll be fine if you hurry up."

The Doctor wouldn't move, staring at Virgo as if she was about to jump off a cliff to her death, when Jabe spoke up, "Stop wasting time, _Time Lord_."

" _Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising._ "

The Doctor sighed, not liking this plan, but it was true that everyone in this room would probably live if Virgo was holding it down and not Jabe. Without further adieu, he ran past the first fan.

SCENE BREAK

" _Heat levels hazardous._ "

The window in the main gallery was starting to crack, letting in glares of light that killed the Steward and nearly Rose into the room. The guests shrieked in horror and tried their best to get out of the way of the glares.

"We're going to die!" the Moxx shouted, speaking for everyone's thoughts as a glare of light hit him straight into the chest...

" _Heat levels hazardous._ "

SCENE BREAK

Rose was leaning against the half burnt door, absently fiddling with her fingers and thighs. She was quite bored in what might as well be a jail cell, a luxurious jail cell, her phone only having so many things to do. She could have called Mickey or Jackie, but she was worried that she might start crying since it would be a goodbye forever type of call, and she didn't want to worry them now.

Her eyes snapped up to the window when she heard cracks coming from in front of her, swallowing her gasp when she saw that glares of light were coming back and were ready for some more frying. A few struck the wall next to her, causing her to scoot away from them.

" _Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shiels malfunction._ "

SCENE BREAK

" _Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical._ "

The Doctor looked back at Virgo, who was biting her lip to keep from making a pained noise. The truth was, the obvious truth, the computer wasn't kidding when it said 5,000 degrees, because it really felt like 5,000 degrees. Time Lords could resist to about 2,000 to 3,000 degrees, but 5,000 was a little over the top for her. It was probably reaching up at 4,000 right not, so it was getting to be in the no-no zone.

He turned back to the fans, remembering that if he could do this faster, then Virgo would be in less pain afterwards. He took a deep breath and ran through the second fan, one of the blades just barely grazing his leather jacket. He needed to be faster this time.

" _Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising._ _Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five..._ "

The Doctor ran through the last fan and quickly pulled the rude lever, yelling out, "Raise shields!" in case if it was voice activated or something like that, too.

" _One._ "

Virgo let go of her lever, jumping up and down and batting her hands around, blowing air onto them to cool them off. Well, that was something she could say and never have to do again: hold something that's 5,000 degrees and last for about a minute or two without crying in pain. Mission, unintentionally, accomplished.

" _Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair._ "

SCENE BREAK

The sun's explosion finally reached to the Earth, causing it to boil a deadly orange, reddish color before exploding into bits completely. The Tudors, the Fourth Human Empire, the Romans; all that history was now gone forever from the original planet were it took place. All the monuments and famous landmarks could never be seen again, the mansions and tiny houses never again be lived in.

SCENE BREAK

Rose opened her eyes from squinting them shut to see a little blue bubble form outside the window, getting rid of the sun's glares. She breathed heavily, unable to believe that she had just survived that... until she realized that Earth was now gone.

" _Exoglass repair._ "

SCENE BREAK

The human entered the main gallery room, her breath leaving her when she saw the devastation Cassandra had created. Some aliens were standing and moving about, some helping out the wounded while others were mourning their friends, fried from the glares. The Doctor entered as well, strolling over to Rose, Virgo following after him, Jabe returning to the other two Trees to see if they're alright.

"Good job, Rose," Virgo tried to joke and lighten up the mood a bit. "You didn't get killed. That's incredible." When she saw that Rose wasn't amused, she sighed. "Sorry. You _are_ all right, correct?"

"Yeah," she merely nodded. "Are _you two_ all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the Doctor spat out. "I'm full of ideas. I'm _bristling_ with them. Idea number one: teleportation through 5,000 degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two: this feed must be hidden nearby." He stormed over to the ostrich egg and cracked it open, revealing that a little remote was hiding in it. He picked it up and moved to the middle of the room. "Idea number three: if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed."

He took out the sonic and flashed it at the remote, causing Cassandra to appear back from where she had teleported away from.

"Oh, you should have seen their little, alien faces," her voice was the first thing to come through, but soon enough, her body (?) materialized. "Oh..."

"The last human," the Doctor sneered at her.

"So, you passed my little test," Cassandra laughed nervously. "Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, er... the Human Club."

"People have died, Cassandra. You _murdered_ them."

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter-"

"And creak?"

"And what?"

"Creaking," the Doctor grinned darkly. "You're creaking."

Which was true, Cassandra's skin was starting to harden and redden, drying out quickly, "What? AH! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens! Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Doctor said with a pointed look.

"Have pity!" her face was now starting to really harden, blood racing in her eyes. "Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything!"

"Help her," Rose took a step toward the Doctor and nudged his arm, not wanting this woman to be die like this. At least take her to court first, right?

"Everything has its time and everything dies," was all he could say to her.

"I'm," Cassandra shouted. "Too. Young!" Her skin stretched out and exploded, like an egg, pieces of skin falling to the warm floor while a giant hole was in the place of where her eyes and mouth were.

Virgo winced, crossing her arms and hugging herself tightly, gazing down at the floor as a tear rolled down her cheek. She doesn't like death, not for one minute, no matter who it was.

SCENE BREAK

" _Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance._ "

Rose, Virgo, and the Doctor were the only ones left in the main gallery room, simply watching the remains of Earth float by them, occasionally some chunks coming close to them, but the shield would just bounce them back, living up to its name. The sun had grown into a beautiful red giant, with such a high cost of something else that was beautiful.

"The end of the Earth," Rose muttered sadly. "It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just..."

The aliens shared glances with each other, it was pretty obvious that Rose was very upset by the death of Earth, knowing that it might cause her to lose interest in time travel.

"Come with me," Virgo held out a hand to Rose. When she took it, Virgo gently squeezed it in comfort and lead her away from the window and over to the TARDIS, where it had been safe the entire time in a closet.

SCENE BREAK

It was 2005 in London, where they were. It was daytime in some kind of shopping square, citizens going up and down the sidewalks, cars going up and down in the roads, babies crying and mothers trying to shush them, people sharing jokes and having a good laugh with their friends.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't," the Doctor mused. "One day it's all gone... even the sky." Rose turned her head, hearing what sounded like a part of the sentence where it was relatable. "Our planet's gone. It's dead. It burned, like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time."

The human stared at the two aliens pitifully. Was that the meaning of the trip then, to make her realize that she's lucky to still have her people and planet at the same time? If that was true, then she got a little glimpse at what it was like to be alone.

"What happened?" she gently asked them.

"A Time War," Virgo croaked, sadness fogging up her eyes. "A Time War against our people and the Daleks, and both sides lost."

"What about your people?"

"We're Time Lords," the Doctor told her, taking hold of Virgo's hand. "We're the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. We're the only survivors."

"Rose, do you honestly feel that you want to continue travelling with us?" Virgo asked her, not wanting to talk about the fate of her planet and people any longer. "Do you want to go home?"

"I don't know," the human shrugged. She was about to tell them that she didn't want to do the time/space travel thing anymore, but when she heard their little story... maybe she should stick around _just_ a little longer? "I want... Oh, can you smell chips?"

"Yeah, yeah," the Doctor laughed as he sniffed the air.

"I want chips."

"Me, too."

"Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and one of you are going to pay."

"I've got a little bit of something in here," Virgo laughed as she patted her pockets. "I don't know. We'll see when we have to pay. If there's nothing in there, well, then we just have to run, don't we?"

"All right then, come on," Rose skipped toward a little restaurant just across from them. "We've only got five billion years 'till the shops close."

A/N: Alright, so I have decided to do a bit of changes for the updating part. I will still be updating, don't worry, but I'll do it every OTHER day, and the reason for that is because, thinking long and hard on this, I have to do this stupid online course for driving and I haven't gotten around to it in awhile, so I really need to work on that because one of the units takes _five whole hours_ and I don't have the time to work on and edit this story and do the driving course at the same time, and school starts on August 26th, so I don't know how much homework I'll be doing. I hope you understand that, and I'll see you on Monday :) !

Also, thank you for the reviews, as they mean a whole lot to me. Seriously, they do :)


	7. Unquiet Dead: A Deadly Situation

Inside a chapel, a young man, looking about mid twenties, was peering down at his deceased grandmother inside her coffin, soon to be buried in the soil forever in peace. He was at least thankful that she died in a peaceful manner rather than suffering from something painful, she had died in her sleep. A vase of lilies was next to the coffin by her head, and candles were lit up all over the room, indicating that it was the time period before the lightbulb came to be.

A man with a bald head and black, ancient clothes quietly entered the room in respect, coming over to the gas lamp to brighten up the corpse's body.

"Sneed and Company offer their sincerest condolences, sir, in this most trying hour," the old Welsh man spoke softly, him, too, gazing down at the woman, whose hands were laying on her chest.

"Grandmamma had a good innings, Mister Sneed," the young man swallowed hard, his eyes dry from all the tears that he had shed awhile ago. "She was so full of life... I can't believe she's gone."

"Not gone, Mister Redpath, sir," Sneed corrected. "Merely sleeping."

Redpath chuckled softly, that was an optimistic point of view on the situation, he supposed. "May I have a moment?"

"Yes, of course," Sneed nodded quickly. "I shall be in the next room, should you require anything." The man took his leave of the room, leaving Redpath alone, as requested.

The man smiled sadly and stroked his grandmother's cheek, before he put it back onto the side of the coffin. He closed his eyes, saying silently his final farewell to her. What he didn't see was some sort of smoke sort of dance around her face, then going inside of her. She snapped her eyes wide open, her eyes all light blue and spooky, and shot her hand out to Redpath's neck, choking him.

Redpath gasped for breath, but couldn't shake the corpse off him, so he knocked the vase over, hoping that the crash was loud enough to get Sneed to come back and help him, or Gwyneth. Gwyneth would also do, he supposed.

As hoped, Sneed had heard the crash and entered the room, his eyes widening at the impossible sight in front of him.

"Oh, no, no," he ran over to the two of them as fast as an old man could go and tried to help Redpath break free, but the said man was nearing very close to the death zone. He eventually got him free, but it was too late, as Redpath merely slumped to the floor; the corpse had done its job. Sneed quickly pushed the corpse back into the coffin, putting the lid on and leaning on it so that the corpse couldn't break her way out. "Gwyneth! Get down here now! We've got another one!"

His strength was only so strong as to hold on for a moment longer before the woman pushed the lid off, causing Sneed to fall down to the floor, hitting his head quite hard. He wasn't dead, unlike Redpath, but now just unconscious.

The woman got out of the coffin and walked out of the room, either thinking that Sneed was dead or that she just didn't need to kill him right now. She walked out onto the street, her mouth wide open with blue smoke coming out from it and a bunch of squeaky voices screaming along with her.

SCENE BREAK

The TARDIS was in for a rather bumpy ride, as it was the Doctor who was trying to pilot _and_ teach Rose how to fly her. Virgo wasn't there to help, as she was getting something to eat in the large and complicated kitchen with a fridge having three whole floors of food, all from different planets and galaxies. They couldn't eat human food for the rest of their lives, and neither of them were experts in Gallifreyan cooking, so they had to branch out a bit.

Rose was holding down a button and a lever, one hand on either of them, while the Doctor was across the console, teaching her how to fly it _and_ flying it, himself.

"Hold that one down!" he called out, pointing to another button that was in between them in another section.

"I'm holding _this_ one down," Rose shook her head. That button was too far away for her to reach; she'd have to really stretch out just to get even close to it.

"Well, hold them both down!"

"It's not going to work!" she grunted, putting her leg up onto the console to see if she could get her foot to land on the unfairly placed button, and that's when Virgo came running from the infinite corridors and into the console room.

"Woah, woah, woah!" she shouted, pushing Rose's foot off the console, pulled a lever, pressed a button, and pulled another lever. The TARDIS finally stopped shaking, and she was breathing heavily. She turned to Rose, "Never put your feet on this console. I'm trying to keep it all shiny and pretty, so I don't need you mucking it up, thank you."

"What happened to you?" Rose stared at her wide-eyed.

Virgo glanced down at herself, then pointed to the Doctor accusingly. She had just been preparing a nice, little peanut butter and jelly sandwich because she thought that they weren't going to be going anywhere while she was making it, so she had turned off the stabilizer in the room... which had been a big mistake. The second she opened the jar of jelly, she had been thrown off her feet, the jar slipping out of her hand and landing on her face, causing all the jelly to leak out onto her face and neck. If that wasn't bad enough, she had tried to wash the jelly off her face, but apparently if you turn on the sink while the TARDIS is travelling through the vortex, the water will spray out onto your chest.

"If you just use the bloody stabilisers for just one minute, then I wouldn't be looking like I had jumped into a sea of jelly," if looks could kill, the Doctor would be in a fate worse than death right now. Virgo sighed, her finger wiping along her face to taste some jelly. "I'm going to go wash off." She stormed out to the infinite corridor, on a mission to get the Doctor back for this, even if he didn't do it on purpose.

The Doctor just merely laughed, but he knew that Virgo would certainly kill him if he didn't put on the stabilizers, so he quickly turned them on and turned to Rose, "Now that you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

Rose thought a moment. "What happened in 1860?"

"I don't know, let's find out," he turned back to the console to pilot it once again. "Hold on, here we go!"

SCENE BREAK

Sneed practically ran around the entire house to look for his servant, Gwyneth, but he was unable to find her. He had a rather large bruise on the top of his head, visible due to his baldness, so he was dabbing it with a wet cloth to try and heal it up.

She was just nowhere to be found! He had checked all the bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining hall, everywhere; it was like she had disappeared... What about the stables?

"Gwyneth!" he ran down the steps, toward the backdoor to try and confirm his suspicions. "Where are you, girl? Gwyneth!" Just as he reached downstairs, his maid in a winter cloak as well as her work clothes came inside. There was a little bit of dirt on the apron, but neither of them took a care to it. "Where've you been? I was shouting."

"I've been in the stables, sir, breaking the ice for old Sampson," Gwyneth explained to him, pointing back to the door she had came from.

"Well, get back in there and harness him up," he ordered and turned away to get something ready that the maid didn't know what.

"Whatever for, sir?" the said girl frowned.

"The stiffs are getting lively again," her master sighed. "Mister Redpath's grandmother, she's up and on her feet and out there somewhere on the streets. We've got to find her."

"Mister Sneed, for shame. How many more times? It's ungodly."

"Don't look at me like it's my fault!" Sneed argued with her. "Now, come on, hurry up. She was 86. She can't have got far." He walked toward the door, on a mission.

"What about Mister Redpath?" Gwyneth chased after him. "Did you deal with him?"

"No," Sneed turned back to his made with a sad frown. "She did."

Gwyneth's eyes widened, "That's awful, sir. I know it's not my place, and please forgive me for talking out of turn, sir, but this is getting beyond now. Something terrible is happening in this house, and we've got to get help."

"And we will, as soon as I get that dead, old woman locked up and safe and sound," Sneed promised her. "Now stop prevaricating, girl. Get the hearse ready. We're going body snatching."

She frowned at Sneed as he turned around and went out the front door, knowing that something was going to go terribly wrong. She couldn't see what was going to happen yet, but she knew that, eventually, Sneed was going to make her use the Sight to either find the 'zombie' or what was going to happen if they made this choice rather than another one. She could sense that they were about to meet some intelligent people, but that was about it, so far.

SCENE BREAK

The TARDIS materialized at an end of a street covered in light snow, but it was continuing to snow, itself, outside. The street was lit up by lamps every hundred feet or so with just a few people roaming it, unlike what present day London would be like... if they were even in London, for starters.

Inside the magic box, the Doctor, Virgo, and Rose were all lying on the ground, laughing their heads off from the almost-crash landing. The Time Lady had quickly gotten the jelly off her face, faster than what Rose thought was normal, but she had just told her that they had a little washroom for removing sticky things from your body or clothes, which was useful. Virgo had come back to the console room, switching off the stabilizers, and apologizing for snapping at the Doctor. He had waved her off, but still all too happy to have some fun piloting the box with her and the occasional Rose help.

"Blimey!" the human sat up with a grin, using the captain's seat to help her get back onto her feet.

"You're telling me," the Doctor also got up, using the console for his leverage. "You two all right?"

"I'm fine," Virgo got up with a laugh.

"Yeah, I think so," Rose informed them, now standing up completely and fixing up her outfit. "Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?"

The Doctor went over to the monitor and smirked widely, "I did it! Give the man a medal."

"Or some jelly," Virgo muttered with the roll of her eyes, debating whether or not to have a look at the monitor as well to make sure they were actually in 1860, or if they were in a time much further into the past, like the dinosaur era... Nah, she needed to get more excited about these things.

"Earth, Naples, December 24, 1860," the Doctor ignored Virgo's comment, but still shook his head with an amused smile.

"That's so weird," Rose shook her head in awe, staring at the monitor even though she could read the weird circle things on it. "It's Christmas."

"All yours," the Doctor stepped back and gestured to the door with a small smile.

"But, it's like... think about it, though," Rose thought aloud, staring at the Time Lords in awe. "Christmas, 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again... except for you two. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a 100,000 sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still!"

"Those days are never really gone, Rose, not truly," Virgo shrugged wisely. "To everyone else, yeah, they're completely gone, but for us... they're just the backyard. All of time and space is your backyard, nothing missing from it."

Rose nodded, once again, it's a good point. How does she do that? She then ran over to the door, but stopped when she heard the Doctor's voice call out to her, "Hey, where do you think you're going?"

She turned on her heel and eyed him oddly, "1860."

"Go out there, dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella," the Doctor reminded her. Times were different, and it would be crazy if a woman wore pants and a shirt. "There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

Rose stared at him. How was she supposed to remember all that? More importantly, how did _he_ even remember that?! Well, it _was_ his ship, and he's had it a lot longer than her, so it wouldn't be surprising if he remembered some routes to different rooms, but... seriously? That?

"I'll go with you, Rose," Virgo sighed when she saw the human's puzzled look. She walked over to her and hooked her arm around Rose's. "I need to change, too, anyway, so might as well go with you." The two of them waved to the Doctor before stepping into the infinite corridor, turning left, turning right, going down a third hallway... Rose lost track after that.

SCENE BREAK

Gwyneth and Sneed were sitting on a seat, the maid controlling the horse to trot slowly so it was easier to search the streets for the walking corpse. It didn't help that it was dark out, barely able to see anything because the lamps were too terrible in showing light. Well, this wasn't the year five billion, and these people had no concept of better light.

"Not a sign," Sneed sighed, looking around. "Where is she?"

"She's vanished into the ether, sir," Gwyneth slowed Sampson, the horse, to a stop by pulling the reigns closer to her. "Where can she be?"

"You tell me, girl," Sneed eyed her.

The maid turned to him with wide eyes, even though she was expecting this to happen at some point, "What do you mean?!"

"Gwyneth, you know full well."

"No, sir, I can't."

"Use the Sight."

"It's not right, sir."

"Find the old lady or you're _dismissed_ ," Sneed leaned in close to her, Gwyneth swallowing hard at the threat. She sighed, then closed her eyes. "Now, look inside, girl. Look deep. Where is she?"

Gwyneth sighed sadly, not liking to feel all these emotions from a deceased person. Why her? Why did it have to be her in the first place? Why did she even tell Sneed about it anyway, besides hoping that he could be of some kind of help. Well, instead of help, he's been taking advantage of her, so not nice at all.

"She's lost, sir," the maid told him. "She's so alone. Oh, my Lord. So many strange things in her head."

"But where?" Sneed pushed on, needing to find the old woman before she could kill anymore people and have the police lead back to them; it would be bad for business!

"She's excited about tonight. Before she passed on, she was going to see him."

"Who's 'him?'"

The maid's eyes shot up straight in front of her, toward a large theatre where a famous man in both the past and present was going to perform there tonight, "The great man. All the way from London. The great, great... man."

Sneed nodded after working it out, used to it because it was known that Gwyneth would talk in riddles while using the Sight. How could he not know who the 'great man' could be? William Shakespeare was long gone, so there was only one man it could be.

Charles Dickens.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor was working under the console, quite bored as it was taking absolutely forever for the two girls to get back here, so he decided to do some tinkering until they got back. Just when he was about to finish fixing something he noticed a pair of feet in black heels stand in front of his face, so he stopped working and gaped at Rose.

"Blimey!" he widened his eyes, turning off the screwdriver.

The blonde had put her hair back very loose bun, held up by a pink flower clip, the corset was black and quite low, showing off her chest, and a black cape tied around her neck for the winter weather. The rest of the dress was a simple pink to go with the flower clip. She looked quite lovely.

"Don't laugh," she laughed at him, pointing a threatening finger at him.

"You look beautiful, considering..."

"Considering what?"

"That you're human," the Doctor went tinkering around, noticing that Virgo wasn't in the room yet, so she wasn't ready to leave.

"I think that's a compliment," Rose shrugged, not really caring, until she realized there was someone missing. She turned her head back to the entrance to the corridor, a mock-betrayed look on her face. Huh, she had sworn that Virgo had been following her...

Rose walked into the corridor and found Virgo pacing around just outside the console room, out of sight from the Doctor. Her hands were behind her back, a hesitant look on her face.

"What're you doing?" the human asked her. "Aren't you coming out?"

Virgo stared at her as though she had two heads, "I'm wearing a _dress_."

"So?" Rose shrugged, not seeing the problem. "He won't laugh, if that's what you're worried about. Just tell him to not laugh, and he won't. It worked for me."

"No, no, no, that's not it," Virgo waved her off, going back to pacing mode. "I hate dresses! Skirts, I don't mind as long as I'm wearing shorts underneath, but _dresses_? What if we run into something that's going to kill us and I won't be able to run fast enough?"

The human eyed her oddly, "You're overreacting too much right now." She shook her head and put her hands on Virgo's shoulders. "You look great, he'll say you look great, we'll stick around for a little bit then leave. There could be danger, but maybe... it'll pass...?" Rose was not good at giving advice, now was she? "Just... just come on."

Rose lead Virgo into the console room, this time the Doctor didn't notice anyone, as his back was turned away from the entrance to the corridor. When the human cleared her throat, he turned around and... gaped once again, but more like a fish this time.

Virgo's corset was black with a light blue ribbon wrapped around it, a light blue dress with a black petticoat, light blue sleeves, and a black bonnet for a replacement for her sunhat. Her hair was out of its classic two braids and into a single braid down her back.

The Doctor was about to make a comment after coming out of his shock, when Virgo beat him to it.

"If you dare say that I look stupid, I will kill you," Virgo said in a serious tone, unlike Rose's lame attempt at a threat.

"You... you look gorgeous," the Doctor shook his head in awe, honestly speaking the truth this time.

Virgo beamed, all signs of skepticalness totally gone. "Thank you! If I'm wearing a dress, then you've got to change, too."

"I've changed my jumper," the Doctor shrugged. "Come on."

Rose ran forward toward the door, "You two stay there. You've done this before. This is mine!"

She opened the door and jumped a little when she felt some snow fall onto her head, not a giant clump, but about as much as a toddler could put in a single hand. She laughed and stepped more so that the Time Lords could get out of the TARDIS, too.

"Ready for this?" the Doctor shut the door behind him, offering his arm to Virgo. "Here we go." She wrapped her arm around his. "History."

SCENE BREAK

The great Charles Dickens walked out onto the stage where he was about to perform, more like narrate, _A Christmas Carol_ , the audience applauding his entrance. Unknown to all of them, the only one not standing up and clapping was the old lady that had attacked Sneed and killed Redpath.

SCENE BREAK

A choir was singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" out on the street that Gwyneth and Sneed were riding on, when the maid suddenly stopped the hearse and pointed to the large theatre.

"She's in there, sir, I'm certain of it," Gwyneth said.

"Right," Sneed nodded as he and his maid got off the hearse and ran toward the theatre.

In the same street, the Doctor had bought a newspaper to check quickly if he actually piloted the TARDIS to the correct time period, because his senses were kicking in that this wasn't 1860. It looked it, but it wasn't 1860.

"I got the flight a bit wrong," the Time Lord sighed in disappointment, Virgo patting his back for her condolences.

"I don't care," Rose shook her head as the three of them continued to walk to God knows where.

"It's not 1860, it's _1869_."

"I don't care."

"And it's not Naples."

"I don't care."

"It's Cardiff," Virgo spoke this time, causing Rose to stop in her tracks at the name of Cardiff.

"Right," Rose said blankly.

SCENE BREAK

Dickens was standing in the booth next to the stage, a large book sprawled out in front of him for him to glance at in case he forgot some words or sentences to his little story that would go down in history for many, many centuries.

"'Now, it is a fact that there was nothing particular at all about the knocker on the door of this house, but let any man explain to me if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face." The audience gasped, all except the dead woman. "Marley's face! It looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look. It looked like...'"

Dickens trailed off when he saw the old woman, her head swarming with unnatural smoke or gas with glowing eyes.

"Oh, my lord. It looked... like that!" He pointed to the woman, the audience turning their bodies to where Dickens was pointing and saw the woman, some of the gasping and widening their eyes. "What phantasmagoria is this?"

The old woman rose from her seat and opened her mouth wide open, the gas turning into little, 2-D ghosts that flew around the room, making the audience to scream and run away toward the exits.

Outside, the Doctor, Rose, and Virgo all stopped in their tracks when they heard the screams coming from the theatre.

"That's more I like it!" the Doctor cheered as he threw his paper away and the three of them dashed over to the theatre, avoiding bumping into the cowardly people along the way.

Dickens, meanwhile, was trying his hardest to calm the audience down, but he was just as freaked out about the strange, old woman than they were.

"Stay in your seats, I beg you," he pleaded to no one, as no one was listening to him. "It is a lantern show. It's trickery."

Sneed and Gwyneth pushed their way through the crowd, many steps ahead of the time travelling trio behind them, both of them politely saying, "Excuse me." to get by.

"There she is, sir!" the maid pointed to the old woman, clear as day to anyone who was trying to find her.

"I can see that," Sneed nodded in annoyance. "The whole blooming _world_ can see that!" They both pushed past more of the crowd.

When the Doctor, Rose, and Virgo got inside, the police were already there, and one of them was blowing his whistle.

"Fantastic," the Doctor breathed when he saw the gas creatures and the old woman. The gas entity flew back into the old woman's mouth, and she closed her eyes and fell on a seat. Sneed and Gwyneth rushed to the seats towards her, Rose following them with her eyes with a frown.

Meanwhile, the Doctor ran over to the brilliant man at the podium, "Did you see where it came from?"

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he?" Dickens glared at him. "I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

Rose saw Sneed and Gwyneth pick up the corpse, so she decided to try and make herself useful and go after them, hoping that she could stop them with her awesome-stopping-people skills.

"Oi!" she shouted after them. "Leave her alone. Doctor, Virgo, I'll get them!"

"Be careful," the Doctor called after her, then turned back to Dickens when he saw that Rose could, hopefully, manage this. "Did it say anything? Can it speak? I'm the Doctor and this is Virgo, by the way."

"Doctor?" Dickens frowned. "You look more like a navie."

"What's _wrong_ with this jumper?" the Doctor asked, exasperated.

" _Everything_ is wrong with your jumper," Virgo rolled her eyes at him with a soft smile plastered on her face.

SCENE BREAK

Rose rushed outside, just in time to see Gwyneth and Sneed trying to push the old woman into their hearse. She ran to them as Sneed went to the front. "What're you doing?"

"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss," Gwyneth put a hand on Rose's chest to stop her from looking inside the hearse. "Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have got to get her to the infirmary."

Rose just merely pushed her way past Gwyneth and put her hands on the woman's cheeks, gasping at how cold they were, "She's cold. She's dead! Oh, my God, what'd you do to her?"

She was about to ask another question, but she suddenly felt an arm weave across her chest and a cloth to her mouth. She gasped into it, then widened her eyes at her mistake. She beat her hand on Sneed's arm, trying to break free, but before she knew it, she was out-cold.

"What did you do that for?" Gwyneth asked with wide eyes, obviously horrified at what her master just did to an innocent woman.

"She's seen too much," Sneed replied. "Get her in the hearse. Legs."

A/N: I hoped you liked the little jelly thing :) I was coincidently eating a pb&j sandwich while I was thinking of how to write this chapter, and then I suddenly thought: do Time Lords eat pb&j sandwiches? A thousand thoughts went through my mind, then somehow, I really don't know how, I came up with jelly all over Virgo's face and just a touch of water because why not? I thought it'd be unique and tiny bit funny to go with my terrible attempt at a pun in the chapter title.

Thank you for reviewing and reading and favoriting, because it really encourages me and gets me all happy in the day :D


	8. Unquiet Dead: A Psychic Maid

The Doctor, Dickens, and Virgo all watched the blue, misty figure fly into a gas lamp, making it flicker a bit before disappearing completely. Now this was new: dealing with some gas-like creature that takes over dead corpses that had recently become corpses. So... they're ghosts, right?

"Gas!" the Doctor exclaimed. "It's made of gas." That's when he took Virgo's hand and dashed outside the theatre, Dickens following them because he wanted to know how this man was able create these illusions that cost him his audience. Granted, he could do this tomorrow night or the night after that, but would people still come after the audience tonight have told everyone about the illusion?

The three of them made it outside, just in time to spot Gwyneth stuff Rose's head into the hearse that had the dead woman inside, shutting and locking the tiny doors, then dashing back to the front to drive the hearse back to their chapel.

"Again?" Virgo breathed, watching the hearse drive off... or trot off, as it was the horse doing the work and not gas and engines... hmm. "Does she not know self defense?" She shook her head in disbelief.

"You're not escaping me," Dickens finally caught up to them, as he was not very fit for running anymore. "What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

"We don't have time for you right now!" Virgo shouted at him, startling both Dickens and the Doctor, but she didn't have time for apologies. Their companion just got kidnapped by two humans, and she knew human kidnappers could be very cruel people when they do unkind things to the victims, and she was not about to let Rose suffer that fate.

So, she lifted up her dress, silently saying, "I told you so" to Rose because she _did_ have to run, and ran over to a nearby carriage, opened the door, and settled herself inside. The Doctor was right behind her, but so was Mr. Dickens.

"Oi, you!" the Doctor told the driver as he shut the door to the coach. "Follow that hearse!"

"I can't do that, sir," the driver replied to him with a glare.

"Why not?" the Time Lord frowned, just wanting to help Virgo save Rose, because right now she was tearing up the seat with her nails to keep herself from getting out and pushing the driver out of the way so she could just follow the hearse, herself.

Dickens opened the door closest to the Doctor, "I'll tell you why not, I'll give you a very good reason why not because this is _my_ coach!"

"Well, get in, then!" the Doctor grabbed Dickens by the collar and pulled him inside the carriage.

"Move!" Virgo shouted at the driver, but he just shook his head at her.

"Afraid I can't do that, ma'am," the driver stated. "You see, you're a-"

He didn't have time to finish that sentence, because at that point, Virgo actually got out of the coach, stormed over to the driver, grabbed his collar, and tossed him to the side of the street. She then climbed up to the little seat that the driver was sitting in and grabbed the reigns, ignoring the whip (that's just a cruel way to make a horse go), and got the horse trotting down the street to where she last saw the hearse go.

"What the Devil is she doing?!" Dickens gaped through the window, very shocked and surprised that a _woman_ was doing a man's job, not to mention that she just, literally, threw him out into the streets! Was she mad?

"Come on, you're losing them!" the Doctor told her, trying to see out the window.

"Mister Dickens, please distract him for me, would you?" Virgo grumbled, though she was feeling better after she had thrown the poor driver out, but feeling guilty because he probably had a rather bad bruise on his bottom or back now. Well, serves him right for not listening to a woman.

"Stop this coach right now!" Dickens demanded, refusing to listen to her command.

The Doctor, on the other hand, merely widened his eyes and looked between the wall separating him from Virgo and the brilliant man called Charles Dickens, "What did she say?"

"Let me say this first: I'm not without a sense of humour," Dickens said.

"Dickens?" the Doctor stared at him.

"Yes."

"Charles Dickens?"

"Yes."

" _The_ Charles Dickens?"

"Did you not pay attention to the date, Doctor?" Virgo scoffed from upfront, able to hear everything they're saying. "It's 1869, who else could he be? Caesar?"

"Charles Dickens?" the Doctor laughed with joy, beaming that he was sitting in the same coach as the master, himself. "You're brilliant, you are. Completely 100 percent brilliant. I've read them all! _Great Expectations_ , _Oliver Twist_ , and... what's the other one, the one with the ghost?"

" _A Christmas Carol_?" Dickens eyed him oddly, liking the praise as he always had been, but still had no idea what was going on and why they were following the hearse and why the woman up front was so angry and/or worried.

"No, no, no, the one with the trains," the Doctor snapped his fingers repeatedly as he searched for the title. " _The Signal-Man_ , that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius! Honestly, Charles - can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

"A what?" the brilliant man frowned at the last sentence. "A big what?"

"Fan. Number one fan, that's me."

"How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"No, it means fanatic, devoted to," the Doctor explained to him, mentally slapping him for forgetting that there was no such thing as a number one fan in these times. Well, that's another thing he created early: fans. "Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit."

Dickens just looked like a mix between crushed and puzzled, "I thought you said you were my fan."

"Ah, well, if you can't take criticism," the Doctor shrugged. "Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up." He then shook his head, remembering why they were in Dickens's coach in the first place. "No, sorry, forget about that. Come on, faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Virgo shouted back at him. In fact, the horse was probably moving faster than it should be, but she really didn't care.

"Who exactly is in that hearse?" Dickens questioned the Doctor.

"Our friend," he replied. "She's only nineteen. It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger."

" _Our_ care!" Virgo corrected, making the Doctor chuckle a bit.

The only human in the coach nodded in understanding, now understanding why Virgo had been lashing out at his driver (he'd have to see if he was alright later).

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry, old books?" he declared. "This is much more important. Madame, be swift. The chase is on!"

"No problem!" Virgo laughed, her worry slowly vanishing now that Dickens was in on following the hearse, now, too, so he wouldn't be an issue later. Fantastic! Oh, she was turning into the Doctor now, they had been alone in the TARDIS too long.

"Attaboy, Charlie," the Doctor patted the man's back.

"Nobody calls me Charlie," the said man stared at him as if the Doctor had two heads.

"The ladies do."

"How do you know that?"

"I told you, I'm your number one-"

"Number one fan," Dickens finished the Doctor's sentence with a laugh.

SCENE BREAK

Gwyneth and Sneed had managed to get back to the chapel before Virgo could catch them, so they had time to get Rose and the old woman inside, starting with the old woman because neither of them wanted the poor girl to wake up directly next to a corpse; Sneed wasn't _that_ mean.

They had finished putting the old woman back into her coffin, so now it was Rose's turn. No, they weren't going to put her in a coffin, so they just decided to lay her on the table where the old woman's coffin had been.

"The poor girl's still alive, sir!" Gwyneth helped her master heave Rose onto the targeted table. "What're we going to do with her?"

"I don't know!" Sneed snapped at her. "I didn't plan any of this, did I? It isn't my fault if the dead won't stay dead!"

"Then who's fault is it, sir?" Gwyneth asked sadly. "Why is this happening to us?" She turned and walked out of the room, Sneed following behind her, locking and closing the door.

As soon as they left, the gas lamps were flickering mysteriously while hushed voices were heard throughout the room.

Out in the hallway, Gwyneth took off her winter cloak and fixed herself as she walked around, Sneed following her around.

"I did the Bishop a favour once," he said. "Made his nephew look like a cherub even though he'd been a fortnight in the weir. Perhaps he'll do us an exorcism on the cheap."

The two of them paused in their walking when there was a knocking on the front door, both of them already guessing who it could be.

"Say I'm not in," Sneed told the maid. "Tell them we're closed. Just... just get rid of them."

He walked into another room to eavesdrop on the conversation in case something goes wrong, while Gwyneth obeyed his orders and went over to the front door.

SCENE BREAK

Rose woke up with a pounding headache, wincing immediately at the pain, a side effect from the stupid knock out thing. What was it called again? Chloroform! It's a nasty, little bugger.

She slowly sat up, not paying attention at her surroundings just yet (she'll get to that later); she needed to try and get rid of the headache, which was slowly fading away.

Since she was doing that, she was completely oblivious that a Mr. Redpath had sat up from his coffin and stared at her, mouth slightly open and eyes similar to his grandmother's.

SCENE BREAK

Gwyneth opened the front door to reveal Dickens, the Doctor, and Virgo standing outside, Dickens directly in front of the door.

"I'm sorry, sir," the maid apologized with a shaking voice. "We're closed."

"Nonsense," Dickens scoffed. "Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir," Gwyneth shook her head quickly, silently pleading for them to go away.

"Don't lie to me, child. Summon him at once."

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed."

A gas lamp on the wall by the stairs behind Gwyneth started to flicker, like in Rose's little prison room, something that didn't go unnoticed by everyone outside the chapel.

"Having trouble with your gas?" the Doctor taunted, Gwyneth swallowing hard, knowing that Sneed wasn't going to be very pleased by this later on.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?" Dickens exclaimed, absolutely confused at how the gas lamps would react like that with no known cause.

SCENE BREAK

Rose finally heard the moaning that Redpath was producing and snapped her head in his direction, eyes widening at the sight. She quickly got off her table, nearly tripping in the process since everything was still a bit fuzzy, but she'll be alright in a minute or two.

"Are you all right?" she asked, backing away from the coffin. "You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding. You are kidding me, aren't you?"

Redpath was not kidding, as he slowly got out of his coffin and walked like a zombie toward her, while his grandmother rose out of her coffin as well.

"Okay, not kidding," Rose nodded to herself and raced to the door, and what do you know? It's locked! Wow, that's such a surprise! What would happen if she kept turning the knob like it'll open? Absolutely nothing.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor ran past the maid and over to the wall with the gas lamp, putting his laughably large ear against the wall to try and see if there was something inside the wall that could make the gas lamp behave like it was right now.

"You're not allowed inside, sir," Gwyneth hissed at him, constantly looking down the hall in case Sneed walked in and saw the Doctor inside.

"There's something inside the walls," he waved her off, eyes full of curiosity, completely forgetting about Rose for a minute. "The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

"Let me out!" the four of them heard Rose's voice shoutout through the door, slightly muffled. "Open the door!"

Gwyneth closed her eyes tightly; they had been caught... if that wasn't obvious enough.

"That's her," the Doctor confirmed.

"'Scuse me," Virgo squeezed past the slightly panicking maid and jogged over to where she heard Rose's frantic pleas, hoping that, if she was hurt, she wasn't in terrible and agonizing pain.

"Please, please, let me out!" her calls were getting closer until it sounded like she was right behind the door. That's when Virgo got out her sonic screwdriver and fixated it on lock, not the door because it was wood, and wood was a sonic's weakness (a very embarrassing weakness, mind you). When she heard a click, she pulled open the door as the Doctor, Dickens, Sneed, and Gwyneth reached her.

Virgo pulled Rose out of the room and into the safety part, more toward the Doctor and Dickens than Sneed and Gwyneth for obvious reasons, just when Redpath was about to grab her.

"Are you all right?" the Time Lady checked Rose over like a very worried mother, feeling her body parts and everything. "They didn't hurt you, right? Nothing broken?"

"I'm fine," Rose nodded slowly, in a daze from everything that had just happened. She had been drugged, woke up in another room with zombies walking toward her, and a horrible headache that was nearly gone now; she wasn't really functional at the moment.

"It's a prank, it must be," Dickens declared with the shake of his head when he saw Redpath and his grandmother standing side by side under the door frame. "We're under some mesmeric influence."

"No, we're not, the dead are walking," the Doctor disagreed, then turned to Rose. "Hi."

"Hi," she gave a small wave to him, then pointed at Dickens. "Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens."

"Okay."

The Time Lord turned back to the zombies, "My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"

"Failing," Redpath spoke with multiple, high-pitched voices that were mixed in with his own. "Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us!" He and his grandmother opened their mouths wide open with a scream as gas around them flew into the gas lamps, and when the deed was done, they both collapsed on the floor.

SCENE BREAK

Gwyneth was busy pouring tea into cups on the table while Dickens, Sneed, and Virgo were sitting on the lounge chairs, the Doctor leaning against the fireplace, and Rose was pacing around the room, ranting at Sneed about her abduction. The Doctor was finding the show rather amusing, but Virgo, on the other hand, wasn't looking quite as pleased as him and kept glaring at Sneed. The said man was looking down at the floor in guilt, jumping at every possible opportunity to defend himself.

"First of all, you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man," Rose said angrily, occasionally glaring at him as she walked around the room.

"I won't be spoken to like this!" Sneed declared.

"Shut up, Mister Sneed!" Virgo hissed at him, the man actually looking scared of her terrifying expression. Once he settled more into his chair, she beamed. "Thank you. Rose, continue."

"Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies!" Rose continued, nodding a thanks to the Time Lady. "And if _that_ ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!"

"It's not my fault," Sneed muttered, Rose pausing in her pacing. "It's this _house_. It always had a reputation: haunted, but I never had much bother until a few months back, and the stiffs, the er... dearly departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot," Dickens scoffed as he rubbed his forehead tiredly.

"You witnessed it!" Sneed turned around to turn on him. "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk, and it's the queerest thing, but they hang onto the scraps."

Gwyneth went on over to the Doctor and placed his tea cup on the mantle of the fireplace, "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."

The Doctor nodded... frowned when he realized he never told her that he wanted two sugars in his tea. Well, yes, it was true that he did like two sugars... but that was just weird.

"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service, just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned," Sneed continued to try and convince Dickens, but he would have none of it.

"Morbid fancy," he replied with that.

"Oh, Charles, you were there," the Doctor groaned at him.

Dickens stood up, "I saw nothing but an illusion."

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time," the Doctor rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Just shut up. What about the gas?"

"That's new, sir," Sneed shrugged. "Never seen anything like that."

"If it's new, then that means the rift has something sneaking through it, the rift being a weak point in time and space," Virgo explained to them, forcing herself to look away from Sneed and glance at everyone to explain it properly, knowing that the man wouldn't be able to do anything to Rose while she and the Doctor were in the room. "It's a helper of creating ghost stories."

"That's how I got the house so cheap," Sneed nodded. "Stories going back generations."

Dickens shook his head and stood up to leave the room, slamming the door loudly on the way out, unable to believe what he was hearing. The Doctor watched him go, sharing a glance with Virgo, she nodding to him. He understood the message, so he got up from leaning on the fireplace and chased after Dickens while Sneed continued to talk.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business, just what people expect from a gloomy, old trade like mine."

SCENE BREAK

Dickens strolled through the hallway and over to the gas lamp he had saw flickering unexplainably (for him). He put his ear against the wall, much like the Doctor had done before.

"Impossible," he muttered with the shake of his head, not hearing anything, so he walked over to the room where Rose had been trapped in with the walking dead people. He took the lid off of Redpath's face and waved his hand in front of his face, expecting Redpath to wince or flinch or open his eyes, any of those would do. When he didn't get the reaction he was hoping for, he crouched down and checked under the table for something to get the man moving up and about.

"Checking for strings?" the Doctor's voice called from the entryway, startling the brilliant man for a moment or two.

"Wires, perhaps," Dickens sighed, standing up straight and fixed up his vest. "There must be some mechanism behind this fraud."

"Oh, come on, Charles," the Doctor strode over to him and put his hands on the human's shoulders. "All right, I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry, but you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures."

"I cannot accept that," Dickens argued.

"And what does the human body do when it decomposes? It breaks down and produces gas; perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like your driver and his coach."

"Stop it," Dickens held a hand in front of the Doctor in the form of stopping someone. "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"

"Not _wrong_ , there's just more to learn."

"I've always railed against fantasists. Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them, but that's exactly what they were: illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that; injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o-lanterns, in which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has is been for nothing?"

SCENE BREAK

Gwyneth was unaware that Rose was in the kitchen with her, washing up the dishes in the sink, as she was lighting up a gas lamp to put some light into the room. She blew out the match and tossed it in the trash before turning to go to the sink, then gasped when she saw what Rose was doing. She quickly dashed over to her and took the plate out of her hands.

"Please, miss, you shouldn't be helping, it's not right," the maid protested with wide eyes, as if horrified someone in an upper class was doing housework.

"Don't be daft," Rose scoffed, putting the rag down on the side table. "Sneed works you to death. How much do you get paid?"

"Eight pound a year, miss," Gwyneth answered with a shrug, as if it was a normal wage for maids and manservants throughout Cardiff.

"How much?" Rose gaped, forgetting for a second that this wasn't the 21st century.

"I know," Gwyneth nodded, taking Rose's surprise as shock that it was a lot of money for a maid. "I would've been happy with six."

"So, did you go to school or what?"

"Of course I did," the maid looked moderately offended. "What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper."

"What, once a week?!"

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."

"Me, too," Rose laughed, remembering the times where she acted like her stomach was hurting so bad so that Jackie wouldn't make her go to school, and then she would be able to listen to her tunes when her mother wasn't in the room, giving her soup.

"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own," Gwyneth got real close to her, as if it was a secret, and laughed excitedly.

"I did plenty of that," Rose nodded in relation. "I used to go down the shops with my mate, Shareen. We used to go and look at boys."

Gwyneth's laughter suddenly stopped with a frown, "Well, I don't know much about that, miss." She turned and put a bottle on a shelf, causing Rose to smirk. How cute, she was probably embarrassed or something... or she really didn't know much about that.

"Come on, times haven't changed that much," Rose pushed the maid playfully. "I bet you've done the same."

"I don't think so, miss."

"Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you've got your eye on someone."

The said maid slowly turned around with a small smile, "I suppose. There _is_ one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. _Such_ a lovely smile on him." Though she wasn't about to tell her that the boy was being eyed by many women around the block, as he was certainly a pleasant view to look at. The odds of her and him ever getting together were very, very slim, sadly.

"I like a nice smile," Rose agreed with a nod. "Good smile, nice bum."

"Well, I have never heard the like," Gwyneth frowned again after a chuckle.

"Ask him out, give him a cup of tea or something; that's a start."

"I swear it is the strangest thing, miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing."

"Maybe I am," Rose shrugged distantly. "Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed."

"Oh, now that's not fair," Gwyneth pouted. "He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rose frowned and patted the maid's shoulder.

"Thank you, miss, but I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me... maybe your dad's up there waiting for you, too, miss."

"Maybe," Rose eyed her oddly. "Er, who told you he was dead?"

"I don't know... must have been the Doctor or Virgo."

"My father died years back," the blonde eyed the maid suspiciously now. Rose hadn't even _told_ the Time Lords anything about her father yet, though she was planning to eventually. She wasn't exactly 'friends' with them yet... more like good acquaintances. It takes a lot from a person to be her friend, and she only tells close friends about her father... unlike Jackie, who blurts it out to anyone who'll listen, though she has gotten better recently.

"But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever."

"I suppose so... how do you know all this?"

"Mister Sneed says I think too much," Gwyneth gestured to her head. "I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?"

"No, no servants where I'm from," Rose shook her head, though not minding the idea of someone coming over to her flat to do her laundry for her from time to time.

"And you've come such a long way," Gwyneth stated.

"What makes you think so?"

"You're from London," Gwyneth stared into Rose's eyes, somehow knowing everything about her now. "I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky... no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness... the big Bad Wolf." The maid suddenly stumbled, Rose jumping out of her shock and rushed over to help support her. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, miss."

"It's all right," Rose reassured her, though still clearly weirded out by Gwyneth's accurate description for a woman in this time period.

"I can't help it!" the maid shook her head quickly. "Ever since I was a little girl, my mum said I had the Sight. She told me to hide it."

"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" the Doctor's voice from the doorway startled both girls, Virgo not with any of them because she wanted to keep a close eye on Sneed, not trusting him for one minute, even if what he did was out in fear.

"All the time, sir," Gwyneth nodded solemnly. "Every night, voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of it," he said. "You're part of it, you're the key."

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir," Gwyneth promised. "Consulted with spiritualists, tables rappers, all sorts."

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?"

"We're going to have a séance."

A/N: Just wanted to say right now that this certainly isn't my favorite episode of all time, so that could be why the last two chapters have been a little... well, blah, you know? It's just kind of boring with no immediate danger (compared to other episodes) anytime soon, but we _do_ get Dickens, which is very nice :)


	9. Unquiet Dead: Rose was Right

All six people were sitting in the living room at a table, staring at Gwyneth for instructions, in which the maid wasn't very comfortable in doing. It was usually her who was giving the attention to people and be told what to do, but that wasn't the case now; _she_ was telling _them_ what to do... and that felt nice. It felt nice to have control over people for once, even if she was just teaching them something, like a teacher to his or her student.

"This is how Madame Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town," she spoke, reaching her hands out to the Doctor and Rose, whom were beside her at the table. In clockwise, it was Gwyneth, Rose, Virgo, Dickens, Sneed, and then the Doctor. "Come, we must all join hands."

Dickens rose from his seat with a sigh, "I can't take part in this."

"Humbug?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him before the brilliant man could leave the room. "Come on, open mind."

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask," Dickens told him angrily. "Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Hold on, now," Virgo held up a hand in a stopping motion with closed eyes. "You really shouldn't say that she knows nothing. _I_ think that Gwyneth could just save the world right here and now, and if you're going to be a downer on her, she's not going to be successful. Now, sit down and hush up, will you?"

"Besides, I love a happy medium!" the Doctor agreed with a small cheer, causing Rose to chuckle quietly.

"I can't believe you just said that," she shook her head at him.

"Come on, we might need you," the Doctor gave Dickens a promising look. After a few moments of consideration, the human sighed and sat down in between Virgo and Sneed, taking their hands into his. "Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

The maid nodded and took a deep breath, then glanced up at the ceiling, as if speaking to the heavens above her, "Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

Suddenly, everyone heard disembodied whispers all around them, some of the people at the table looking over their shoulders to try and spot the cause of the voices, which was only instinct, of course.

"Can you hear that?" Rose asked, listening hard to try and make some words out of the whispers... in which she hadn't the slightest idea of what they were saying. For she knew, it could just be some language, a language that sounded gibberish to her. Is that what happens when you die? You just adopt a language that all the ghosts know so that you all can talk to each other without confusion? That would certainly be interesting... scary, but interesting.

"Nothing can happen," Dickens sneered at her. "This is sheer folly."

"Look at her," she countered with the nod of her head over to Gwyneth, who was now looking at something distantly with wide eyes.

"I see them," the maid breathed, surprised because this was the first time she would actually be seeing the owners of the voices. "I feel them." A little circle of gas suddenly appeared and hovered above their heads, the whispering much louder now, but still not very clear. Ooh, this was just exciting now!

"What's it saying?" Rose asked in sheer curiosity, automatically glancing at the Time Lords since they seem to be so clever and know everything.

"They can't get through the rift," the Doctor said. "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, _you're_ controlling _it_. Now, look deep. Allow them through."

"I can't!" Gwyneth cried with the shake of her head.

"Come on, Gwyneth, I know you can," Virgo encouraged her, trying not to sound forceful or pushy. If the maid couldn't make the link, they could easily come up with other ways to connect to the deceased (or the aliens, which was more likely); they were only doing it like this because it was a direct connection. "All you have to do is make the link, and that's it."

Gwyneth closed her eyes tightly in an attempt, eyes opening a few moments later with a, "Yes." Right after she spoke this, three gaseous, blue outlined people appeared behind the maid, their eyes just light blue dots, making them look like the stuff from a little kid's drawing.

"Great God!" Sneed gasped, absolutely astonished. "Spirits from the other side!"

"The other side of the universe," the Doctor corrected, studying the gas people carefully.

"Pity us," the one directly behind Gwyneth spoke. Its voice was light and sounded like two children were talking, and the maid just happened to be talking with them, as she _was_ under their control. "Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."

"What do you want?" the Doctor called out to them, making sure that this isn't an alien invasion, unlike the Autons' pathetic attempt.

"The rift," the Gelth leader said. "Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."

"Why should we?" Virgo asked in suspicion. "You could be from anywhere in the universe with any kind of purpose. Why should we let you through to this world?"

"We are so very few," the Gelth informed everyone, causing the Time Lords' expressions to soften. "The last of our kind. We face extinction."

"Why, what happened?" the Doctor asked, though he could probably already guess one cause that had made the universe suffer throughout time.

"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came."

Confirming his thoughts, the Doctor closed his eyes in guilt while Virgo squeezed Rose's hand, just needing something to put pressure on.

"War?" Dickens furrowed his eyebrows, greatly recalling that there had not been a war recently, not for the last 24 years, anyway. "What war?"

"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged." Rose cast a concerned glance to both Time Lords, guessing that that was probably the war they were talking about before they had chips after they saved Platform One. "Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

"So that's why you need the corpses," the Doctor nodded.

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again," the Gelth spoke with great passion. "We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."

"But we can't," Rose shook her head immediately.

"Why not?" the Doctor frowned at her, thinking that she was out of her head for refusing that kind of a bargain. Those people had died of natural (hopefully) causes, so they would be perfectly good candidates for the Gelth to take over. It may not be very respectful, but survival is more important than respect. And anyway, it's not like they're killing anyone, right?

"It's not," Rose stared at him, thinking that _he_ was the one who was crazy. "I mean, it's not-"

"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives."

"Open the rift," the Gelth spoke once again before Rose could retaliate. "Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." The aliens screamed as they were transferred back into the gas lamps, either on purpose or because the time to stabilize was up. Gwyneth gasped and dropped her head on the table, exhausted from the work she had put into to keep the Gelth in the room.

"Gwyneth?" Rose stood up and rushed to her side, shaking her.

"All true...," Dickens breathed, the truth practically dancing in his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

"Are you okay?"

"It's all true."

SCENE BREAK

A few minutes later would find Gwyneth laid on a chair, Rose dabbing her head with a damp cloth, basically becoming the maid's doctor. Virgo was sitting on the other side of Gwyneth, just holding her hand and rubbing her thumb across the knuckles, smiling a little at Rose's great care toward Gwyneth. The Doctor was back over at the fireplace, Sneed in his chair, and Dickens was just pacing around the room, his own way of getting things straight in his head.

The maid awoke with a little sniff, eyes wandering around the room to get the images to stay still instead of multiple images overlapping each other. She tried to sit up, but was immediately pushed back by Rose.

"It's all right," the said person reassured her. "You just sleep."

"But my angels, miss," Gwyneth muttered in a tired tone, not objecting to the little push to go back to sleep, because she was still tired. "They came, didn't they? They need me?"

"They do need you, Gwyneth," the Doctor nodded in agreement. "You're their only chance of survival."

Rose turned and glared at the Time Lord, "I've told you, leave her alone! She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." She turned back to Gwyneth and gave her a glass of water, just like a caretaker. "Drink this."

"Well, what did you say, Doctor?" Sneed asked him. "Explain it again. What are they?"

"Aliens," he shrugged, stating the obvious (obvious for only three people in the room, apparently a confusing topic for the other half).

"Like... foreigners, you mean?"

"Pretty foreign, yeah, from up there."

"Brecon?"

"Close," the Doctor shrugged, knowing that Brecon was not up in the sky... oh, Sneed. When will you learn? "And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff, but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test-drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl," Dickens concluded while he rubbed his head, still just a bit startled from the séance from a few minutes ago.

"They're not having her," Rose shook her head in confidence, so sure that the Gelth might harm the maid.

"But she can help," the Doctor frowned at her, not understanding why Rose didn't want to help the aliens all of the sudden. The Gelth were the last of their kind, and he knew how that felt all too well and he didn't want the Gelth to die out like this. Who knows? Maybe they're good guys? "Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge, and let them through."

"Incredible," Dickens mused with awe. "Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhibiting cadavers."

"Good system," the Doctor nodded. "It might work."

"You can't let them run around inside of dead people," Rose stood up and stared at the Time Lord in horror, the Time Lady sighing and closing her eyes. Here we go again...

"Why not?" the Doctor countered. "It's like recycling."

"Seriously though, you can't."

"Seriously though, I can."

"It's just wrong! Those bodies were living people. We should respect them, even in death."

"Do you carry a donor card?"

"That's different," Rose huffed. Good combat. "That's-"

"It _is_ different, yeah," the Time Lord agreed. "It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home."

"Enough, you two!" Virgo stood up with anger in her eyes, just sick of them bickering back and forth like an old married couple... actually, no, that's just a gross comparison. She walked over and pointed at the Doctor. "Never threaten a companion just for speaking her belief. She's different from you, so she'll have different perspectives on everything you see, so why don't you give her a chance to let her live in her own world?" She turned on Rose. "I know and I understand that you believe this is the wrong way of doing things, but it's the _only_ way to fix this problem. If there was another way to do it, either the Doctor or I would have thought of it by now, and we would do that instead of this, but this is life, and life's never respectful, now is it? We do what we must do because innocent, hopefully, beings will die if we think that respect is more important than survival."

She took a step back, seeing that her words were settling in the Doctor and Rose's heads, judging by how they were staring at the floor thoughtfully.

"What do you think, Gwyneth?" Virgo asked her, seeing that the maid had sat up straight without any wincing. "What do you think we should do?"

"The angels need me," Gwyneth spoke with a firm nod. "What do I have to do?"

Virgo nodded in approval, turning to look at everyone, "First things first, we need to find the rift, which is in the weakest spot in the house, since the house itself is on a weak spot. Mister Sneed-" She glared at him, still not forgiving him for kidnapping Rose. "-where's the weakest part of the house, the place where most of the ghosts have been sighted?"

"That would be... the morgue," Sneed informed her without meeting her eyes.

"No chance you were going to say 'gazebo,' is there?" Rose remarked, but was ignored.

SCENE BREAK

And that's where they were heading: down the stairs and into the morgue, where it wasn't a very kid-friendly room. Corpses were lying on tables with white sheets over their bodies, pipes in the back of the room with a little gate, and an arch a little ways away from where they entered the room. It was pretty much a cemetery, except that it was in a basement and none of the bodies were buried and in coffins just yet... which was very unsettling and creepy.

"Urgh," the Doctor grimaced, not liking the room anymore than anyone else here. "Talk about Bleak House."

Rose casually strolled over to the Time Lords, whispering to them, "The thing is, the Gelth don't succeed 'cos I know they don't. I know for a fact that there weren't corpses walking around in 1869."

"History's never really firmly in place," Virgo said with a shrug. "One tiny change from anything could rewrite your time in a blink of an eye with all your memories changing."

"Nothing is safe," the Doctor agreed firmly. "Remember that: nothing."

Rose just swallowed hard and looked away from them. Well, now she knew there was absolutely nothing bad that could possibly go wrong here... yeah, she was fine...

"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder," Dickens observed, feeling the goosebumps rise up under his sleeves.

"Here they come," Rose muttered.

Everyone watched a Gelth fly out of a gas lamp by the door then manifesting right under the archway, though it was only one Gelth this time, and it was the one that had spoken when they had the séance upstairs... in the non-creepy room. It looked exactly the same, though everyone was able to see the whole body. There weren't any legs, as far as anyone could see, it just... ended, like a dress or a cloak, and there were no hands; just the outline of sleeves.

"You've come to help!" the Gelth exclaimed happily. Not in relief... just happiness. "Praise the Doctor. Praise him!"

"Promise you won't hurt her," Rose stepped forward with a glare, not wanting the maid to fall victim to a trap, should this whole thing be a trap and the innocent 'Pity the Gelth' was just a coverup.

"Hurry!" the Gelth ignored the blonde. "Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer," the Doctor promised her/him/it. "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"

"My angels," Gwyneth breathed with wide eyes. "I can help them live."

"Okay," the Time Lord nodded, trusting that Gwyneth understood the risk for her life. "Where's the weak point?"

"Here, beneath the arch," the Gelth answered him.

Gwyneth nodded and moved to stand under the arch, just in front of the floating, blue alien, spreading her arms and legs wide and lifting her head up toward the sky, eyes distant and thoughtful.

"Beneath the arch," she repeated quietly.

Rose darted forward and grabbed the maid's hand in concern, "You don't have to do this."

Gwyneth just cupped her face, shocking Rose in how cold her hands had quickly become, "My angels..." She sighed and stepped back to her place where she had originally been.

"Establish the bridge," the Gelth ordered Gwyneth. "Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Yes, I can see you," Gwyneth spread her arms out, like she was welcoming something through the wall with wide eyes. "I can see you. Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing," the blue figure announced, assuming that everyone cared and knew what a bridgehead was.

"Come to me!" Gwyneth shouted in welcoming, making Virgo shift her feet. "Come to this world, poor, lost souls!"

"It is begun. The bridge is made." The maid opened her mouth, letting in dozens of blue gas creatures to fly out from it and over to the corpses. "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." The innocent, blue creature then turned into something out of a horror movie, the color turning to orange, reddish with feisty, sharp teeth with a much deeper voice. "The Gelth will come through in _force_."

"You said that you were few in number!" Dickens furrowed his eyebrows as he watched the Gelth from Gwyneth's mouth fly under the white sheets and to the recently departed underneath.

"A few _billion_ ," the Gelth corrected the semi-lie (it _did_ say a few), "and all of us in need of corpses."

That was when the recently departed sat up on their tables, being controlled by the Gelth within the brain, the sheets sliding off their faces to reveal the scary look in the eyes.

Sneed stormed over to Gwyneth, anger clearly written on his face, "Gwyneth, stop this! Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you-"

"Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose warned him. When she saw that he wouldn't move, she made her own move to pull him away from the incoming zombie, but Virgo held her back, seeing that it was far too late.

The incoming corpse grabbed Sneed just as he registered Rose's warning, and snapped his neck. Good try, Rose. The corpse then proceeded to open Sneed's mouth and allowed a Gelth to fly in and take over him.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong," the Doctor mused, watching Sneed slowly lift his head to reveal that he had the same eyes as the other dead corpses had.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth," he spoke in a cold, distant voice. "Come, march with us." He stood up on his own and held his arms out, walking toward the backing-away group.

"No," Dickens breathed as he inched toward the exit, straying from the herd.

"We need bodies," all the corpses spoke at once in unison. "All of you, dead. The human race, dead."

"Gwyneth, stop them!" the Doctor called out to her, but it was no use, as the maid could not see or hear what was happening. "Send them back now!"

"She can't hear you, stop trying," Virgo pulled him back by the arm to stop him from moving past the incoming Gelth.

"Four more bodies," the corpses said. "Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."

The Doctor opened the gate in the back and shoved Rose and Virgo inside before putting himself in the enclosed area, sonicing the gate so that the Gelth couldn't open it. And if the Gelth couldn't open it, all they did was to clamber against the metal bars and reach their arms through to try and grab them.

Dickens, meanwhile, seemed lucky because none of the Gelth were focusing on him, so he stood by the entrance to the morgue, "Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so..." He shook his head and escaped the morgue, choosing not to try and help the innocent people behind the gate. Talk about not being brave.

"Give yourself to glory," the corpses shouted at the trapped trio. "Sacrifice your lives to the Gelth."

"I trusted you," the Doctor glared at them (mainly the orange on by the arch) with curled fists. "I _pitied_ you!"

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive!"

"Then live no more!"

SCENE BREAK

Dickens ran out into the streets, the blue gas chasing him. This wasn't how he wanted to die! How was anyone supposed to explain that a gas creature was chasing him and he just keeled over?! No, he wanted a peaceful death, to die in his sleep... not from something that sounded like it came from one of his books!

SCENE BREAK

"But I can't die," Rose shook her head quickly, fearful of both the Gelth and death... and probably the laws of time and space saying that she can, indeed, die a century before she was even born. "I haven't even been born yet! It's impossible for me to die... isn't it?" She turned to look at the Time Lords that were next to her (left to right: Rose, Doctor, and Virgo) and her heart sunk when she saw their apologetic looks.

"Remember what I said earlier, Rose?" Virgo frowned, choosing to focus on her face instead of the incoming Gelth that was scaring her to death (she never liked anything that resembled a zombie, anyway). The blonde nodded. "Well... kind of the same logic here. Sorry, really, I am."

SCENE BREAK

Dickens managed to get on the other side of the road before he heard the Gelth shriek and float back into the gas lamp forcefully, not finished with chasing the brilliant man down, even if it's a year before he's due to die.

Thanks to that, Dickens widened his eyes at the realization that everyone had missed, "Gas. The gas!" He ran back toward on his house, knowing that he could save the three people in the morgue if he hurried.

SCENE BREAK

"But it's _1869_ ," Rose stared at Virgo as though she were completely mental. "How can I die now?"

"I've told you, history is never really settled in place," Virgo explained to her softly, knowing that Rose was not going to be happy by this information. "That includes every single piece of history, history that includes you. You can die a year before you were born."

"And it's all my fault," the Doctor sighed.

" _Our_ fault," Virgo took hold of his hand and gave it a little squeeze, not wanting him to have any more burdens on his shoulders right now, not until he's come to terms to what he had to do to Gallifrey.

"It's not any of your faults," Rose shook her head in disagreement, though flattered that they wanted to blame themselves for her apparent, future death. "I wanted to come."

"What about me?" the Doctor scoffed. "I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five, I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party... now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff."

"Don't be ridiculous," Virgo shook her head in amusement, thinking he was joking about the dying part in his sentence. "No one's dying in here."

"It's not just dying... we'll become one of them," Rose pointed to Gelth that were trying to push their way past the bars and gate.

SCENE BREAK

Dickens ran inside the house and turned off the gas lamp closest to the door, then moved on to the next one against the wall. It wasn't long before he started to choke, so he took out a handkerchief out from his vest pocket and pressed it against his mouth, then headed down the stairs to save the trio who were, hopefully, not dead or about to die.

SCENE BREAK

"We'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose started to smile as she took hold of the Doctor's hand, him holding onto both ladies' hands.

"Yeah," he nodded with a sad smile.

"Sorry, what?" Virgo's face started to pale, realizing that they were probably, actually serious about giving themselves up to the Gelth. "Why are we going down fighting? What are we doing?"

"All three of us?" Rose asked, merely shrugging at Virgo. She didn't want to die, either, but at least it'll be in a unique place. It's not everyday you die in a dungeon in Cardiff, so what the hell?

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded again.

"We're not going anywhere," Virgo shook her head quickly, pulling her hand out from the Doctor's grasp and backed up against the wall. "We're staying right here until they give up and go home."

"It'll be all right, Virgo," Rose frowned at her. "A snap in the neck won't hurt that much, right?"

And that's when Dickens got back into the morgue, his handkerchief off his mouth so he could use both hands to turn the gas up, "Doctor! Doctor! Turn _off_ the flame, turn _up_ the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" He turned off the lamp next to the entrance, covering up his mouth once more.

"What're you doing?" the Doctor frowned at him. They were about to make an epic moment in committing suicide, and Dickens was ruining it by killing himself first... thank you, Charles Dickens!

"Turn it all on," he ran to the other half of the room and turned off the gas lamp there. "Flood the place!"

The Doctor's eyes widened in realization as he looked back at the pipes, "Brilliant. Gas!"

"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose scoffed, unsure which was better: a neck snapping or choking on gas. The neck would be quicker, but choking would allow her to say her silent goodbyes to her mother.

"Am I correct, Doctor?" Dickens asked him, severely hoping that his theory was correct so that these Gelth creatures could bid their goodbyes and never bother the rest of the human race ever again. "These creatures are gaseous."

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host," the Doctor proceeded to add the logic to Dickens's theory. "Suck them into the air, like poison from a wound."

"Oh, my God," Virgo breathed with wide eyes, turning to the Doctor. "How could we have missed that?! I'm turning into you: big boat of thickness."

Unfortunately, since Dickens had shouted it out, the corpses turned away from the trapped trio and over to the man's direction, slowly trudging over to him. He breathed and backed up, eyes pleading to the Doctor's to help him out.

"I hope, oh Lord," he brought his handkerchief to his head. "I hope that this theory will be validated soon... if not immediately."

"Plenty more!" the Doctor reassured him as he picked up a lone pipe and bashed it against the working pipes along the walls, a whole lot of gas leaking into the room in just one second.

The corpses stopped invading Dickens and screamed their heads off, the Gelth being forced out of them and into the pipes and lamps. Now why didn't anyone think of this sooner? A simple solution, and they could have saved poor, old Sneed's life... well, things happen, right, Dickens?

"It's working," the said man breathed with a soft smile, beaming that his idea was actually correct.

The trio got out of the enclosed area and the Doctor ran over to Gwyneth, while Virgo stayed behind to make sure that Rose and Dickens wouldn't choke to death in a very gaseous room. Dickens still had another year to run before his downfall, and she didn't want history to be changed because of it. She and the Doctor were Time Lords, aliens, and that meant they were able to last longer in this room than any of them, if they were ever affected by the gas in the first place.

"Gwyneth, send them back," the Doctor ordered her, the maid looking worn and tired with no more Gelth passing through her mouth. The one behind her was still there, however. "They lied. They're not angels."

"Liars?" she asked with a curious and heartbroken frown.

"Look at me," he sighed. "If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength, now send them back!"

"I can't breathe," Rose choked out, nearly falling to the floor from her hacking if it wasn't for Virgo to keep her standing up.

"You and Charles need to get out," the Time Lady pushed her toward the exit. "You can't stay in here for long."

"I'm not leaving her!" Rose pushed Virgo off her and leaned on the wall, just wanting to make sure that Gwyneth will be alright in the end, not caring if that meant her demise.

"They're too strong," the maid whimpered with a soft, tired voice.

"Remember that world you saw?" the Doctor asked her. "Rose's world? All those people? None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."

" _I can't send them back_ , but I can hold them," Gwyneth reached into her apron pocket for something. "Hold them in this place, hold them here." She got her hand back out from the pocket, revealing a box of matches resting on her palm. "Get out."

"You can't!" Rose cried out, bumping into the Doctor as she ran toward her, not wanting the maid to die to seal the rift.

"Leave this place!" Gwyneth barked at her with a glare, knowing that it was useless for her to try and stop her, because out of everyone in this room, it was best if she did it.

"Rose, get out," the Doctor shoved the stubborn human back over to Virgo, who was already getting Dickens out, and succeeding with it. "Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" Virgo grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room, Dickens making it up to the stop of the stairs by the time they were out. The Doctor stepped forward to Gwyneth and held his arm out in front of him. "Come on, leave and give that to me."

The maid didn't move, just stared at him with solemn eyes. It took the Doctor a minute to realize what her look was saying, so to confirm his thoughts, he brought his hand up to her neck to check for a pulse. When he couldn't find one, he sighed sadly.

"I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely, kissing her forehead for the last time. "Thank you." He gave her a small, sad smile before dashing out of the room, the Gelth still swirling around her.

After he left, Gwyneth took out a match and hovered it above the box and glanced up at the ceiling, listening hard to the Doctor's footsteps so he could make it out alive. When a considerate amount of time had passed, she lit up the match and the whole house exploded, throwing the Doctor off his feet and flying to the ground just in front of Rose, Virgo, and Dickens.

Virgo quickly helped him up while Rose stared at him sadly, noticing that Gwyneth wasn't there with him.

"She didn't make it," she breathed.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor looked back at the burning house. "She closed the rift."

"At such a cost," Dickens shook his head in his sorrows. "The poor child."

"She was dead, wasn't she?" Virgo asked him, refusing to look at the house, as it'll just remind her that two innocent people just lost their lives, three if you count Redpath. "When she stood under the arch, something happened and she... got cut off from reality?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, Rose widening her eyes at that piece of information. "The moment she stood under the arch."

"But... she can't have," the human shook her head in disbelief. "She spoke to us, she helped us, she _saved_ us! How could she have done that?"

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in philosophy," Dickens mused wisely, "even for you, Doctor."

"She saved the world," Rose spoke solemnly, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. "A servant girl... No one will ever know." The group stayed there, staring at the house to the very end, ignoring the people who were trying to put out the flames so that it wouldn't spread to neighboring houses, and when the police arrived, they took their leave, not wanting to be questioned.

SCENE BREAK

The four of them walked all the way back to the TARDIS (a ridiculous amount of walking, since they didn't take the hearse back over here), the Doctor about to fetch his key out from his pocket, but found nothing of the sort. Instead, he found a little note that said, "Gotcha."

He immediately stared at Virgo, who was playing innocent and almost hiding behind Rose, the girl not even sure why the Time Lady was hiding in the first place.

"Virgo...," he sighed with a smile, a bit thankful that she stole his key because he just needed a little something to make him smile, and that always did the trick, but he would never let her know that, of course. "Give me my key back."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Virgo shrugged, casually pulling out a golden key out from her sleeve and held it up. "It just happened to fall into my hands while you were busy trying to impress Rose with the laws of time and space travel."

"Along with a note that said, 'Gotcha,'" he took the key from her hands, causing Rose to roll her eyes at their antics and Dickens furrowing his eyebrows, unsure of what they were doing.

"I'm sorry, but you're making it too easy for me," Virgo laughed as she crossed her arms and leaned against the side of the TARDIS, just feeling the hum, as if the old box was agreeing with her. "I'll stop when you deadlock your coat and put a million locks in your bedroom."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked Dickens, sensing that those two were going to be baiting each other for a while... which was probably an understatement.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste," Dickens beamed at her. "This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered up," the Doctor raised an eyebrow, surprising Rose that he was done bantering with Virgo.

"Exceedingly!" the brilliant man cheered with a giant grin. "This morning, I though I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired! I must write about them."

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose frowned, unsure of what that could mean for history.

"I shall be subtle, at first," Dickens promised her, thinking that she was talking about something else. " _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle... Perhaps, he was not of this Earth. _The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals._ I can spread the word, tell the truth."

"Good luck with it," the Doctor beamed at him, shaking his hand, though sad on the inside because he knew the outcome from it. "Nice to meet you, fantastic." He pulled away so he could get the TARDIS door open.

"See you later, Charlie," Virgo winked at him, then the two shared a laugh from the inside joke. She then proceeded to shake his hand, then stepped back afterwards so Rose could say her farewells.

"Bye, then, and thanks," Rose, like the Time Lords, shook his hands, but wait! A twist! She leaned over to his face and gave him a nice, little kiss on the cheek, then backed away in time to see a flustered Charles Dickens. Now, you don't often get to see that.

"Oh, my dear," Dickens swallowed hard as Virgo bit back a bit of laughter. "How modern. Thank you, but... I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see, in the shed," the Doctor gestured to the TARDIS just as he got the door open and opened it just a crack before Dickens started to speak once more.

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you," he said. "But after all these revelations, there's just one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this: who are you?"

The Doctor pursued his lips, unsure what to tell him. Should he say that him and Virgo were aliens from outer space and that Rose was from the 21st century, they were all from the future, they were all aliens, or just strange people passing through? Well, at this time period, people tend to write things down and document their daily lives, and he didn't really want anymore attention drawn to a mysterious figure that never seems to age (which is true). It was better if he was just left a forgotten story.

"Just a friend... passing through," he answered him with a fake smile.

"But you have such knowledge of future times," Dickens pointed out. Alas, he's clever! "I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!" the Time Lord beamed.

"For how long?"

"Forever." Dickens seemed very pleased by that, as he was positively grinning his head off. "Right. Shed. Come on, you two."

"In the box?" Dickens frowned as he tried to look into the TARDIS, but the door wasn't wide open, so he couldn't see that it was bigger on the inside. "All three of you?"

"It's cosy inside," Virgo shrugged, forgetting that Dickens didn't know about the different dimensions inside. "Catch you later, alligator!" She waved at him one last time before the time travelling trio clambered inside the TARDIS, Dickens staying outside, just waiting for them to come out and explain to him what they were doing in there.

Inside, the Time Lady ripped off her bonnet and dashed to her sunhat on the captain's chair, the bonnet just annoying her to death. Rose had a similar idea with the head thing, as she took off her clip and let her hair fall out of its messy bun.

"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose asked the Time Lords... and burst out laughing when she saw Virgo wearing a sunhat while in a 1800s dress. It didn't exactly... go together... nicely.

"What?" Virgo looked at her in mock-offence. "I love this hat. It makes me feel complete with myself."

"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies," the Doctor chuckled at her, but sobering up when he saw Dickens on the monitor, just staring the TARDIS up and down for something. "Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story."

"Oh, no," Rose gasped, sad to hear that they arrived so late in Dickens's timeline. "He was so nice!"

"You're forgetting something," Virgo waltzed over to the two of them, staying on the Doctor's side, just like in the little cell they were trapped in. "Time and space is your backyard. When you were born, he was already dead for a century or two, and now he's just outside those doors, more alive than he's ever been."

"Old Charlie boy," the Doctor nodded in agreement, a hand resting on a lever. "Let's give him one last surprise." He pulled it, then looked back at the monitor to see Dickens's face light up in awe and surprise.

SCENE BREAK

Charles Dickens watched the TARDIS dematerialize, and when it was nearly gone, he turned on his heel and laughed his head off, incoming citizens of Cardiff thinking that he'd gone mad. He walked down the streets like a new man, new ideas filling his mind about the blue elemental things, so he just barely registered a choir singing 'Hark the Herald Angels' and a young man saying, "Merry Christmas, sir."

"Merry Christmas to you," Dickens replied with a broad grin, surprising the man at how happy he sounded. "God bless us, everyone!" He tried to say that sentence nice and loud so that everyone could hear him... which reminded him something: where had his driver gone? Hmm...

A/N: And that's the _Unquiet Dead_ , and if we look at the list of episodes, it seems that _Aliens of London_ is next, and Jackie is in that episode. If we look at the description of the story, it says that Jackie is the one to figure out what Virgo is hiding. But is it even in _Aliens of London_ , or is it in _World War Three_? Could it be even more later in _Father's Day_ or _Parting of Ways_? Hmm...

Thanks for reviewing and following and favoriting and all those lovely things :D Really does bring a smile to my face and gives me the encouragement to upload more chapters!


	10. Aliens of London: Spaceships and Cubes

The TARDIS materialized in the 21st century in the Powell Estate, just short of where Rose and Jackie live, no one of the three realizing how long it's been since Rose had last seen Jackie and vice versa. The Doctor, Virgo, and Rose all got out with the Time Lady locking the door.

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining, all nice and proper, with the kids singing nursery rhymes and telling their parents how much they appreciate and love them so, and a gentleman picking up some trash and putting it in the can, then striking a pose that a hero would make.

That was a lie. It was cloudy with no singing kids or a gentleman improving the environment or happy and appreciative parents; just a guy sitting on a trashcan reading the newspaper, somehow missing the fact that a giant, blue box had just appeared a little ways away from him.

"How long have I been gone?" Rose asked the Time Lords, smiling a bit at the sight looking familiar from when she left.

"About twelve hours," the Doctor told her.

"Yeah, right," Virgo scoffed as she scratched the back of her head. "This is him actually getting to a specific time period. We're probably a year off or something like that." The girls shared a laugh while the Doctor just pouted.

"I'll have you know, I _am_ capable of getting to a specific time," the Doctor countered calmly. "I could do that if you're not distracting me all the time."

" _Distracting_ you?" Virgo laughed in confusion (she does that when she's confused, just laughing it off makes her feel better). "In what way do I _distract_ you? What, do you think I'm just glowing so brightly that you can't see the controls?"

"You keep stealing stuff off me, so I'm looking at my jacket while trying to drive the TARDIS perfectly at the same time," the Doctor waved her off with the roll of his eyes. "It's not easy doing that."

"Whatever you say," Virgo mumbled, then turned to Rose. "Why are we stopping here again?"

"I just want to see my mum," the human shrugged, gesturing to the flats behind her. "I won't be long."

"What're you going to tell her?" the Doctor asked her with raised eyebrows, kind of curious to what her excuse to Jackie will be. Not really, a lie again.

"I don't know," Rose said sarcastically. "I've been to the year five billion and only been gone... what, twelve hours? No, I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See you later." She ran toward the building complex, but then turned on her heel for this: "Oh, and don't you two disappear on me."

Virgo gave her a thumbs up, then Rose proceeded to run back to her flat, the Time Lady just noticing that the Doctor was walking to a concrete pillar that held a bunch of fliers for one specific topic. She followed him with a frown, curious as to what the fliers said, but also concerned that it could be a bad thing.

SCENE BREAK

Rose entered her flat, throwing some keys to the side table against the wall and shut the door, "I'm back! I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in?"

Jackie walked into the foyer with wide eyes and a cup of tea in her hand, nearly having a heart attack when she saw her daughter. She looked close to crying with shaky hands with an absolutely mesmerized face.

"So, what's been going on?" Rose asked her mother, assuming that Jackie had probably just watched a sad movie or something. "How've you been? What? What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."

Jackie was still in shock, so she didn't try to catch the cup as it fell to the wooden floor, shattering it to pieces, not even wincing when some pieces flew into her bare feet.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor and Virgo widened their eyes after they read the fliers, then the two of them were dashing off to warn Rose before she got up to meet her mother. Why? The flier was a missing poster for her, apparently missing since March 6th, 2005.

SCENE BREAK

"It's you," Jackie breathed, emotional that her daughter was finally back under her roof after so long.

"Of course it's me," Rose started to frown, knowing that a sad movie wouldn't have this effect on her... Did the Doctor get the date right? Of course he did... right?

"Oh, my God, it's you," Jackie pulled her daughter into a bone-breaking hug, still not minding the broken glass. "Oh, my God." Now that Jackie was out of view of the room, Rose could see the kitchen table held stacks upon stacks of missing posters, all of them having her face on it. She gave a silent gasp, but did widen her eyes physically and just froze from trying to console Jackie.

Okay, it was settled. She was going to get Virgo to team up and try and throw the Doctor in a supernova, regardless of the 'last of the Time Lords' story.

The Doctor barged in through the door just when Jackie started to sob into Rose's neck, the said girl not even bothering to see who it was.

"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve _months_ ," he panted. "You've been gone a whole year... Sorry."

Virgo finally got into the room, apparently panting harder than the Doctor. She laid a hand on the wall and leaned on it, just getting some energy back.

"I don't do stairs," she glared at the Doctor, who was looking at her in concern. "That's going to be my downfall one day: stairs. We're going to get trapped on a planet full of stairs while a zombie's chasing us, and if he touches you, you'll cease to exist. Can I have a water?" She directed that question to Rose, who was still not looking at either of them, still in shock at the posters.

SCENE BREAK

Jackie had eventually gotten over the shock... which the shock was probably better, because she just turned into a mother full of rage which was mainly directed at Virgo, since that had been the last person that Rose was with before she vanished. She was only yelling at the Doctor part of the time because he seemed to be associated with the Time Lady... which was true, but not in _that_ sort of sense.

And so, Jackie was pacing around the room, lashing out while a police officer was sitting on a chair, trying to understand the situation through her ramblings with a notepad and pen.

"The hours I've sat here, _days and weeks and months_ , all on my own," Jackie glared viciously at Virgo and Rose, who was sitting on a chair by the table, sipping on a bottle of water that her daughter had provided for her. Virgo was just letting the woman let out her emotions, completely understanding that Jackie would feel as though the two of them had kidnapped her only daughter, the last remaining link to her dead husband. "I thought you were dead, and where were you? Travelling! What the hell does that mean, travelling?! That's no sort of answer. You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says: travelling."

"That's what I was doing," Rose told her calmly, the travelling bit entirely true, but was it a lie if she wouldn't say it was _time and space_ travelling?

"When your passport's still in the drawer?" Jackie scoffed and pointed in the general direction of Rose's room. "It's just one lie after another!"

"I meant to phone," her daughter sighed, getting frustrated that she had to give a little fib or two so that the officer wouldn't arrest Virgo and, perhaps, the Doctor. "I really did, I just... forgot."

"What, for a _year_?" Jackie argued with her. "You forgot for a _year_?! And I am left sitting here... I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?!"

"Actually, it's my fault," the Doctor stepped forward, hoping that he could improve the situation a bit. "I sort of, er... employed Rose as my companion."

"When you say 'companion,' is this a sexual relationship?" the policeman asked, shocking everyone except for Jackie.

"No!" both Rose and the Doctor immediately denied that, hoping to dismiss any further thoughts from the police officer's mind. That is just... ew.

"Then what is it?" Jackie cried, desperate to know what happened to Rose, but all they were doing was talking in riddles. "Because you," she pointed a finger at Virgo, "you waltz in here, all professional and promising, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! What, did you find her on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a DI?"

"What did she do?" the officer asked Jackie and pointed at Virgo, who now looked sheepish at that bit of information that Rose's mother had just given away. Oh dear.. "Did she impersonate a detective inspector?"

"It was a joke!" Virgo blurted out before Jackie could confirm it. "I was just messing around a bit... it was a laugh." The officer just looked at her sternly. "Oh, come on. You can't arrest me for something so small that happened a year ago. Common sense." She took another sip at the water with the shake of her head.

The police officer sighed, writing down the impersonation on the notepad, reminding himself later to keep an eye on her.

SCENE BREAK

A little while later, Jackie and Rose were sharing an emotional reunion in the kitchen that involved tears and tight hugs, the anger in Jackie just turning her into an upset woman.

"Did you think about me at all?" she cried, pulling away to see Rose sniffle in guilt.

"I did," she nodded, only semi-true, but only saying it just to make her mother feel better. "All the time, but..."

"One phone call," Jackie shook her head at her. "Just to know that you were _alive_."

"I'm sorry," her daughter apologized sincerely. "I _really_ am."

"Do you know, what terrifies me is that you _still_ can't say. What happened to you, Rose? What can be so bad that you can't tell me, sweetheart? _Where were you_?"

Rose could only swallow back a sob and gazed at the floor, unable to even begin to describe Henrick's or the Autons or the TARDIS. Maybe one day, she will understand... but definitely not today of all days.

SCENE BREAK

Tears were gone by the time the Time Lords caught Rose sitting by herself on the rooftop of the Powell Estate. They were feeling guilty about making Jackie go through a whole year without knowing where her only daughter was (and neither of them were brave enough to go up to her to even apologize), so the best thing for them to do is to just hang around Rose until something happens.

"I can't tell her," the said person shook her head in defeat. "I can't even begin... She's never going to forgive me. And I missed _a year_! Was it good?"

"This is... what, 2006 now?" Virgo frowned in thought. "Nothing really is happening. 2078, now that's a brilliant year to be in: the mastery of hover cars. 'Number one car in the 21st century.'"

"You're so useless," Rose rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?" the Doctor asked her, hoping that she won't go just because of a pesky mother worrying about her.

"I don't know," she shrugged absently. "I can't do that to her again, though."

"'Course you can't," Virgo nodded in agreement.

"Well, she's not coming with us," the Doctor shook his head, grimacing at the thought of Jackie asking where they were going in the TARDIS. He'd probably end up dropping her off on a planet in which its soul purpose was to make you have an enjoyable paradise experience and never come back for her while he, Rose, and Virgo were off gallivanting across the galaxy.

"No chance," Rose agreed, also not enjoying the idea.

"I don't do families."

"I think we should," Virgo commented casually, surprising both people at how she would think that having Jackie on the TARDIS would be a good idea. "It could spice things up a bit. If not Jackie, then at least Mister Mickey. Families are healthy pieces in your life, and I don't see why you should abandon them." She nudged the Doctor's shoulder. "900 years of time and space, and you never even considered a mother as a companion?"

"It's just... weird," the Doctor grimaced with the shake of his head. "They're always complaining about safety and hygiene."

"When you say 900 years...," Rose stared at them with a pointed look.

"That's my age," the Doctor nodded, then gestured to Virgo. "She's 883."

"You're 900 and 883?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Rose tapped the roof with her hands, a little weirded out at how two people who look forty and thirty are actually 900-years old. "That is one hell of an age gap. Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist."

As if life wanted to defy the little human, on cue, a horn honked behind the trio and as they turned their heads, a giant flying saucer flew above their heads and toward the rest of London. It just barely missed hitting Tower Bridge, made a little U-turn around St. Paul's, made a giant scar in Big Ben's face, then landed into the Thames River. Big Ben chimed once before everyone on the rooftop could sense that the police and fire department would be going mental right about now.

"Oh, that's just not fair," Rose muttered, watching the smoke from the distance.

SCENE BREAK

The time travelling trio made it as far as they could go on foot toward the Thames before the military and some of the police force and news people were flooding the scene, blocking off the roads, annoying the drivers as a result.

Many of them were getting out of their cars and turning away from the scene, just going home on foot, giving up on trying to get their cars to turn around. If their car got towed away in the morning, they could always get it back after they've finished murdering the aliens. They just _had_ to crash-land right when they were on their way to work or the grocery store to pick up some milk for a newborn baby at home. Fantastic, that is.

"It's blocked off," the Doctor stated the obvious, the three of them standing on the sidewalk to avoid grumpy drivers.

"We're miles from the centre," Rose shook her head in disbelief, disappointed that they couldn't get a good look at the spaceship. "The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down."

"I _know_!" the Doctor beamed excitedly. "I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" Rose eyed him oddly while Virgo was scanning past the tanks, trying to see what was happening behind the scenes.

"Did you _know_ this was going to happen?" the human asked him.

"Nope!"

"Do you recognise the ship?"

"Nope!"

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope!"

"Oh, I'm glad I've got you."

"This isn't supposed to happen," Virgo crossed her arms and pursued her lips, staring at the tanks in suspicion (only because she couldn't stare at the spaceship in suspicion). "The human race aren't supposed to confirm that aliens exist today. They confirm it later in the future, so that means that someone's messing with history... or that humans are just incredibly stupid."

"Well, let's go and see it," Rose shrugged, not denying the fact that humans could be stupid when they wanted to be. "Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

"Better not," the Doctor shook his head quickly. "They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London; I don't want to shove another one on top."

"Yeah, but yours looks like a big, blue box. No one's going to notice."

"Humans are observant, too," Virgo said. "Anyone can come to an emergency like this, and many, many people will be on the lookout. The TARDIS is good where it is right now."

"So, history's happening and we're stuck here," Rose summed up, disappoint coloring her voice.

"Yes, we are," the Doctor confirmed with a smile, not minding a little break from investigating.

"We could always do what everybody else does: we could watch it on TV," the human suggested. The Time Lords shared a glance with each other then nodded, both of them curious as to what news forecasters would have to say about the incident.

SCENE BREAK

And on a TV, they did. The three of them were currently sitting at the Tylers' flat, watching the news. The Doctor and Rose were sitting on the couch and Virgo was sitting on the armchair with a rubix cube, trying to solve it. She had gotten one side of it completed, but would have to change it again, so really, she hadn't solved it at all.

" _Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London_ ," the reporter on the TV said on screen. " _Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene_."

The screen flipped to a man with short blonde hair and a black, heavy coat, " _The police are urging the public not to panic. There's a help line number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family_."

The Doctor switched the channel to an American news station, where a black woman was sitting at a desk, papers in her hands.

" _The military are on the lookout for more spaceships_ ," she reported. " _Until then, all flights in North American Air Space have been grounded_."

The Doctor flipped back to the original channel.

" _The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship_ ," Hitchinson said. " _No one knows what they're going to find_."

Back to the American.

" _The President will address the nation live from the White House, but the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies_."

Jackie came over with some mugs in her arms. She gave one to Rose and her friend, Ru Chan, but paid the Time Lords no mind at all. She did, however, stare at Virgo carefully to make sure that she wouldn't do anything to Rose.

"I've got no choice," Jackie shrugged at Ru's questioning expression at her.

"You've broken your mother's heart," Ru sneered at Rose, who didn't even bother to defend herself, just staring at the floor in guilt.

"I'm not going to make them welcome," Jackie shook her head as she sipped on her tea, sending glares to the back of the Doctor's and the side of Virgo's heads.

"I cradled her like a child," Ru placed a hand on her chest.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at them. "Oi, I'm trying to listen."

Meanwhile, the screen changed to a reporter standing at 10 Downing Street, as well as a dozen other reporters. "... _his current whereabouts. News is just coming in. We can go to Tom at the Embankment_."

Back to Hitchinson.

" _They've found a body. It's unconfirmed, but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore_."

SCENE BREAK

A little while later, Jackie was throwing a party to welcome the aliens to Earth (not the Time Lords). The Doctor was still at the TV, paying close attention, and Virgo had figured out nearly the entire cube, so she was tuning everything out so she could try and solve it before the Doctor had enough of the humans in here.

Hutchinson was also still reporting, " _A body of some sort has been found inside the wreckage of the spacecraft_."

Jackie slid down on the couch and sat next to Rose. "Oh, guess who asked me out," she told her. "Billy Crewe." Rose barely acknowledged her, so Jackie sighed and walked away.

"... _brought to the nearest shore. Unconfirmed reports say that the body is of extraterrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding here live in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary, the whereabouts is yet unknown. The roads in Central London are being_ -"

A toddler had managed to climb on the Doctor's lap and managed to press a button that would change the channel. The screen turned into a baking show, where a man seemed to make an edible spaceship.

" _And when you've stuck your fins on, you can cover the whole lot in buttercream_ ," the man said on screen as he worked on his masterpiece. The Doctor and the toddler were now wrestling each other for the remote. " _Oh, look at that. Then, ice it any colour you want. Here's one I made a little earlier. And look at that, your very own spaceship, ready to eat! And, for something a little extra special_ -"

The Doctor yanked the remote out from the toddler's hands and switched it back to News 24.

"... _Albion Hospital. We still don't know whether it's alive or dead. Whitehall is denying everything, but the body has been brought here, Albion Hospital. The road's closed off. It's the closest to the river_."

The Doctor set aside the remote and put the toddler on the floor and gently pushed him away. "Go on."

"Come here, sweetie," Virgo gently pulled the adorable toddler and lifted him up to her lap and gave him the rubik's cube. "We can solve this together, you and me. That's what you do, right? You put kids on laps and give them something to play with?" She looked at Rose for confirmation, and she merely shrugged. It was... close?

" _I'm being told that General Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's been evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police still won't confirm the presence of an alien body contained inside those walls_."

SCENE BREAK

General Asquith walked down a corridor with two other military men, guns in their hands, locked and loaded. They were off to see a scientist/physician to see to the body that had been found in the wreckage in the Thames.

He entered a room, finding that Scientist Sato was studying her notes on a clipboard, hoping to impress the General and maybe, just maybe, earn a little smile from him because he hardly ever smiled these days. She liked smiles. Smiles and science were her territory.

"Let's have a look, then," Asquith told her, and she pulled back the white sheet to reveal something... unexpected. "Good God! And that's real? It's not a hoax or a dummy or a-"

"I've x-rayed the skull," Sato cut him off, not interested in the shock portion of the conversation. "It's wired up like nothing I've ever seen before. No one could make this up."

"We've got experts being flown in," Asquith sighed, a bit disgusted. "Until they arrive... get that out of sight." He waved his hand and walked out of the room, uncomfortable with the image that that was what aliens, apparently, looked like.

"Excuse me, sir?" Sato followed him out the room, causing him to stop in his tracks. "I know it's a state of emergency, and that's a lot of rumour flying around... but is it true what they're saying about the Prime Minister?"

SCENE BREAK

" _Mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the Prime Minister. He's not been seen since the emergency began_ ," Andrew Marr announced on the television, which was still on at the Tyler flat. The Doctor was getting itchy with impatience with all the humans around. " _The opposition are criticising his lack of leadership, and_..." The reporter turned his head to a black car that seemed to mean business. The door opened to reveal a large man in a blue suit. Dozens of reporters turned to the camera while others tried to get the man to say something, and photographers flashed their cameras.

" _Oh, that's Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale. He's Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionery. With respect, hardly the most important person right now_."

And that's when the Doctor finally had enough information from the television and annoyance from the humans to get out of the flat and head downstairs. Rose chased after him, wondering what he was going to do now, while Virgo was staying inside the flat, teaching the toddler a Gallifreyan nursery rhyme about the Time Lords ruling the universe in peace. The toddler, of course, had no idea what was happening in the rhyme... but it was a good beat, so he didn't care.

"And where do you think you're going?" Rose called after the Doctor, seeing him walk toward the TARDIS that now had graffiti on it: 'Bad Wolf.'

"Nowhere," the Doctor lied, knowing exactly where he was going. Hint: the news said something about a hospital and an alien corpse. "It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

"Right," Rose nodded slowly, not at all buying the whole 'wandering' thing. "There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just 'wandering.'"

"Nothing to do with me," he defended himself. "It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing; angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect." Too perfect.

"So?" Rose asked, not sure where he was going with this.

"So, maybe this is it: first contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay, now you can expand. You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

Rose still thought he was lying, so she crossed her arms stubbornly, "Promise you won't disappear?"

The Doctor turned around on his heel and reached for something in his pocket, "Tell you what." He gave her a shiny key. "TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. See you." He gave her one last smile before going back to the TARDIS, leaving Rose no choice but to go the opposite direction and head back to her flat where her mother was waiting with open arms.

SCENE BREAK

The young Tyler got inside, about to say, "I'm back!" when, as she walked past Jackie's bedroom, she heard the sound of crying and a hushed voice trying to console the sobbing person. Rose furrowed her eyebrows, thinking that Jackie was probably the one who was crying her eyes out and probably Ru or something was trying to make her feel better, so the teenager's heart started to break again from the guilt settling on her. She turned her head to the door, where the sobbing and voices were coming from, and rested her hand on the door handle and listened intently, verifying that it was Jackie because she didn't want to barge in there if it wasn't her.

She squinted and pressed her ear against the door, trying real hard to listen because they were talking so quietly and the person who was crying sounded like they were crying into a pillow or shoulder or something like that. When she couldn't make anything out at all, she slowly opened the door a crack, just enough for one eye to see into the room. She nearly gasped at what she saw in there.

 _Virgo_ was the one crying and _Jackie_ was the one trying to comfort her! What?!

Rose was about to step in the room and to get Jackie out of there, but stopped when Virgo started to talk, reminding her that she should probably try and figure out what was wrong by listening to what they were saying first before barging in like she knew exactly how to fix it.

"I thought you said you knew feeling!" Virgo cried into a pillow (their backs were to Rose, so they didn't know that she was eavesdropping on them). "You say that, and you just go out and say you don't understand."

"I _understand_ what having a baby is like, I never said anything about trying to hide it," Jackie soothed the Time Lady by running her fingers through her braids.

Rose tried her hardest not to gasp, but didn't bother to hide the fact that her eyes were wide and mouth gaping like an idiot. Did she just say... no, no, no, no, that's impossible. Virgo would tell her that if she was... right? Right? No, no, she must have misheard her mother... yes, that was it. She misheard her.

"You know what the worst part is?" Virgo sat up from lying down on a pillow, wiping away a stray tear that rolled down her cheek, but it made no difference as another one came travelling down on the other side. "I have actually told him that I was pregnant, I distinctly remember it. It was in some barn or shack thing on our planet, there was a box on the ground, there were some people there, and I don't know why it's all so blurry, but I remember it, and... he doesn't, and I don't know why. I tried giving him hints to trigger his memory back... but he just doesn't remember, and now I can't tell him because I don't know what he'll do with it once it's born." She cried into her hand and squinted her eyes shut, two more tears falling down, causing Rose's heart to break for her.

Rose really shouldn't be listening right now, she should have stayed outside and gone with the Doctor and maybe see Mickey... but... wow. This was too amazing and mind-blowing (maybe not _mind-blowing_ , but it was very surprising).

"I'm terrified everyday, because everyday it's growing bigger and bigger and soon it'll be noticeable... and I don't know what'll happen then," Virgo crashed back into the pillow, just hugging it in closer to her body as if it's her life support system, and Jackie just rubbed her back, letting her cry. "I don't know if he's going to kill it, I don't know if he'll make me give it to some human family, I don't know if he'll let me raise it. I don't know!" She threw the pillow on the floor and grabbed Jackie's shoulders, her arms visibly shaking. "What do I do?! Please tell me because I don't know anymore!"

"You know what you should do?" Jackie raised an eyebrow at her. "Tell him. Go run out those doors and tell him now, and if he's not going to let you keep it, you fight. Have you got that? Just fight for your kid, no matter what steps in your way."

Virgo sighed and removed her hands from her shoulders and crashed on the bed again, not to cry, but just lie on her back and stare at the ceiling.

"Maybe I'll tell him once we're better friends," she shook her head in thought. "I just want to feel safe, but I love the travelling at the same time, and I love-" She stopped herself and closed her eyes, making Jackie give a little chuckle.

"You love him," she said, making Rose scream in her mind at what was happening right now.

Virgo grabbed her pillow _again_ and placed it on her face, not hugging it in, just... letting it sit there, "I don't know. Yes? It's complicated. I'm scared of him, and I love him. What am I supposed to do? I shouldn't even be asking you, should I? We took your daughter away from you for a whole year, and _you're_ trying to help _me_."

"I may still be mad at you, but I haven't lost my manners," Jackie waved her off, just wanting to help her, forget the Rose case. "I'll just say this: the sooner you tell him, the less he'll be angry and the sooner you feel relieved, the more happy you'll be."

Virgo just shook her head, the two of them staying silent for a few moments before the Time Lady suddenly sat up and got off the bed.

"May I use the bathroom?" she asked Jackie, who nodded her approval. Virgo gave her a thankful smile as she walked around the bed and toward the door, Rose quickly running out from view and into the living room, jumping behind the couch so that Virgo wouldn't see her.

When the said woman got out of Jackie's room, she was frowning at the door. She could have sworn Jackie had shut it entirely... She just scoffed and walked into the hall, just needing to be alone and wash her face to get rid of any signs of tears. She didn't want the Doctor to get a hint that something was killing her slowly and painfully.

When she was sure that Virgo was gone, Rose stood up and stared at where she had left in horror. Does she seriously think that the Time Lady could hide this from the Time Lord for long? It would start to show eventually... right? Assuming that the location of the baby was the same and the amount of time it took for it to pop out was the same... well maybe plus or minus two or three months.

Well, she had her work cut out for her. Two things she needed to do. One: get the Doctor to be more safe with the adventures. Two: eventually confront Virgo and get her to tell the Doctor as soon as possible.

Let the madness begin.

A/N: o.o And there we have it! Secret revealed (to you guys, anyway, and to Rose and Jackie)! I feel so stupid right now XD I love my made-up scene, but I don't know how it sounds in other people's heads, and for all I know, it could be confusing, but Rose _did_ eavesdrop on them in mid-conversation, so things will be a little vague. But at least the title makes more sense, eh? Eh? *nudges arm*

Thank you for following, favoriting, and reviewing, as always, it's very much appreciated! Probably worth it since we got a little confession about two things :)


	11. Aliens of London: Mr Green is Green

The Doctor got his key out from his pocket and strutted over to his lovely time and space machine, missing the fact that Mickey Smith was a little ways away, tying his shoes, not knowing the fact that his girlfriend had returned home after a year's worth of avoiding Jackie and people who believed her murder story. He's become a bit frantic about everything on the inside, but is a tough, big boy on the outside, and also a bit meaner to strangers.

Since Rose had disappeared he's been stuck in his flat, so what's the one thing he forces himself to do until she gets back? Research. That's what he did for an entire year: researching the Doctor and Virgo on his computer and avoiding Jackie and her friends. He's found a lot of interesting pieces of information, like the Doctor was part of some organization called UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) and never resigned, and bits and pieces of some guy who works in an organization different from UNIT (Torchwood, he believed) and was looking for the Doctor for private reasons.

And that's why he reacted the way he did when he finally looked up and saw the Doctor walking toward the TARDIS (he even knew the abbreviation). Mickey widened his eyes and got up clumsily and sprinted toward the Doctor, not about to let him escape, should Rose be in there.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be a bit slow on the running bit because the Doctor managed to reach the TARDIS by walking and got inside of it, dematerializing the box as he went.

"Wait, Doctor!" Mickey shouted after him, pushing himself harder as the TARDIS grew fainter and fainter. "Doctor!" When he finally reached where the old box was, it was completely gone and he didn't have time to slow down. He crashed into a closed iron shutter behind a shop, catching himself from the force. He shook his head, then put his hands in his pockets and walked casually toward Jackie's flat as if nothing happened, greatly hoping that no one was there to see him do that embarrassing stunt.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS didn't seem to be all in for teleporting to the Albion Hospital, so the Doctor thought it would be a good idea to take out a giant hammer and just smack it on the console, somehow thinking that it would make the TARDIS go faster or work more properly.

SCENE BREAK

In an office in Downing Street, an older woman in a formal jacket and skirt (she was Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North) walked up to a secretary to the Prime Minister with a cup of coffee. It was just another attempt at trying to bribe the secretary, Ganesh, to speak with Green about something about hospitals and cottages or something of the sort, but the secretary wisely in a non-wise manner told her to just wait until the whole flying saucer crashing in the Thames was all sorted out, then she could talk to Green, but Harriet was just too impatient.

"I bet no one's bought you a coffee," she schmoozed with a broad grin as she handed him the coffee mug.

"Thank you," Ganesh gave her a fake smile as he took the coffee away from her after he set aside some papers on his desk.

"Pleasure," Harriet nodded, watching Ganesh raise the mug to his lips.

He was about to drink it when he noticed she was still standing there, just waiting for the permission to pass into the office and speak to Green.

"You still can't go in," he told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He was really getting annoyed by her weak attempts to schmooze him, but he wasn't complaining when she actually did something to brighten up his day a bit, like the flowers from forty minutes ago.

"Damn," Harriet sighed with a smile, already knowing her plan wasn't going to work. "You've seen through my cunning plan."

Ganesh chuckled as he took a sip, then set it aside for later, "Look, I'm sorry. It's just impossible."

"Not even for two minutes?" she pleaded, causing Ganesh to roll his eyes. "I don't get many chances to walk these corridors. I'm hardly one of the Babes, just a faithful backbencher, and I know we've had a brave, new world land right on our doorstep, and that's wonderful. _I_ think that's probably wonderful. Nevertheless, ordinary life keeps ticking away. I need to enter this paper." She held up a small packet of typed words forming sentences that Ganesh didn't even bother to try and read.

Before Harriet could give the papers to the secretary, the doors in the office behind his desk opened to reveal Joseph Green, Margaret Blaine, and Oliver Charles walking out. Harriet's whole face brightened as she jogged over to Green.

"Oh, Mister Green, sir," she told him, Ganesh standing up with a sigh. "I know you're busy, but could you put this on the next Cabinet agenda?"

"What is it?" Green asked her, peering down at her hands to read the packet.

"Cottage hospitals," Harriet showed him the packet, holding in in front of herself so it would be easier to read. "I've worked out a system whereby cottage hospitals do not have to be excluded from centres of excellence. You see, my mother's in the Flydale infirmary. That's my constituency. Tiny, little place, you wouldn't know it, but it's given me a chance to-"

"By all the saints," Green cut her off with a horrified expression, "get some perspective, woman! I'm busy!" He pushed past her with a huff as Margaret and Charles followed him, Ganesh also following after he retrieved his coat from his chair.

Harriet watched them go, looking back at the office and back again toward where the four of them left, seeing an opportunity. She crept into the Cabinet Room and shut the door until it was open by a crack so she could see if anyone was coming and their identity.

She opened up a red briefcase that was on the giant table and placed her packet inside of it, about to close the lid when something caught her eye: the Emergency Protocols file. She grew curious as to why that would be inside of the briefcase, so she took that file out and sat down on a chair and started reading.

SCENE BREAK

The TARDIS materialized in a small, empty storage room with boxes all over the place, and the Doctor stepped out, not even knowing that Mickey had tried to get his attention a few minutes ago. He looked around, making sure that the storage room really was empty, before walking over to a door to unlock it and get out. Of course, this is a job for the sonic screwdriver!

"Shush!" he scolded it (that's not weird) by the noise it was creating. His scold made no difference to the sonic, but it did open the door and he walked out... only to stop in his tracks.

The room that was connected to the storage room was full of people from the army, most of them sitting down and talking to their colleagues about how much they hate their job or their hopes to be promoted to an officer or a general one day. Such an exciting future...

The Doctor met the eyes of all the marines in silence for a few moments, everyone just processing that a guy in a leather jacket just walked out of a closet with a metal wand suddenly. When they came to their wits, they pointed their guns at the Time Lord, the said man raising his arms sheepishly, now glad that Virgo wasn't here with him. Before anyone could start questioning him, Dr. Sato suddenly screamed loudly, breaking the ice.

"Defence plan delta!" the Doctor shouted like a general would, his time in the Time War leaking back to him. "Come on! Move! Move!" He clapped his hands and ran out the other door with all the marines on his tail, subconsciously thinking that the Time Lord was qualified to lead them.

They all ran to Sato's office, where the said girl was sitting on the ground with a gun in her hand and a nasty, giant cut on her forehead. She was shakingly uncontrollably with fear and eyes locked at the other end of the room; whatever had attacked her was last seen there.

"It's alive!" she cried as the Doctor crouched next to her to quickly asses her cut.

"Spread out," he told the three men by the door behind him, focusing on Sato's cut. "Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown."

"My God... it's still alive," the scientist choked out.

"Do it!" the Doctor ordered them when they hadn't moved, the three of them now suddenly questioning his authority. Nonetheless, it was an emergency situation, so they listened.

"I swear... it was dead," Sato breathed when the Doctor stood up to search for her attacker, the alien that was under the white sheet that Asquith had gaped at earlier in the day.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything," he listed off. "What does it look like?" Before Sato could answer him, the attacker came into contact with something metal and that sound filled up the room. "It's still here."

He walked backwards toward the door and silently gestured one of the marines to come in here and sit by Sato, in which they did. The Doctor then creeped around the desk, crouching down when there was another noise from something metallic. He popped his head around the corner to reveal...

A pig in an astronaut suit?

"Hello!" he cheered with a broad smile, even waving at it for safe measures.

The pig was not thrilled by this, however, and just squealed loudly and ran around the other side of the desk, catching the marine and Sato off guard.

The soldier widened his eyes and quickly tried to load up his gun, absolutely shocked at what he was seeing. He had watched the Time Lord play Ring-Around-the-Rosie with something, and then a pig in a spacesuit suddenly comes out of nowhere. That's not something that was on the watch-out list when he applied for his job.

"Don't shoot!" the Doctor quickly ordered as he chased the pig when it ran out of the room into immediate danger, where a _whole party_ of marines were just waiting for something around the corner (by waiting, it's just them talking in their little groups).

The pig ran toward the soldiers, and when one of them finally saw it, he scrambled for his gun and shot the pig, none of them having heard the Doctor's voice from the office. The said man ran out of the office, absolutely horrified when he saw the pig's dying body on the ground.

"What did you do that for?!" he cried, kneeling down by the pig to try and comfort it, but by the time he got there, it was already dead. "It was scared! It was scared..."

SCENE BREAK

Harriet was still reading the Emergency Protocols when she realized she had been in the Cabinet Room for so long that Asquith, Green, Charles, and Margaret were all back and heading toward the targeted room from all the voices that were increasing volume. She gasped silently and placed the file back into the briefcase and crept over to the door, opened just enough so that she could see their bodies.

"I've got the White House phoning me direct because Downing Street won't answer their calls," Asquith was yelling at the three other people angrily in annoyance. "This is outrageous! We haven't even started the vaccination programme. This is appalling. The nations of the world are watching the United Kingdom."

Harriet cursed to herself when she saw they were, indeed, making their way to the Cabinet Room, if not slowly. She looked around the room and spotted a closet (bigger than her own at home) and inspected it quickly, making sure it was empty enough where she could squeeze herself inside.

"Well, it has all been a bit of a shock," Green tried to defend himself outside as Harriet nodded in approval.

"This is the greatest crisis in modern history and you've done nothing!" Asquith continued to argue at him. "Your behaviour has been shameful, sir. You're supposed to be in charge. We need positive leadership. The capital's ground to a halt."

Harriet crept back over to the door to check on their progress to the room, quickly changing her direction and ran to the closet when she saw they were an inch away from entering. She managed to get into the closet and close the door (once again, a crack open so she could watch what was happening and make sure they all left the room so she could leave).

"Furthermore," the general continued, "we can only assume that the Prime Minister's disappearance is the direct result of hostile alien action, and what have you been doing? Nothing."

"Sorry, sorry," Green stopped Asquith with what Harriet identified as an amused smile. "I thought _I_ was the Prime Minister now."

"Only by default," Asquith grumbled, not liking that fact at all.

"Oh, that's not fair," Green pouted in a mocking manner, causing Harriet to frown in confusion. Now that was _not_ how people high up in the government behaved. "I've been having such fun."

"You think this is _fun_?"

"It's a hoot, this job!"

"Honestly, it's super," Margaret agreed with a laugh and smile.

Charles's agreement, instead of a laugh, turned into a fart, "Oh, excuse me." He farted once more and Green and Margaret laughed. "Oh!" The trio laughed in amusement, all of them taking turns in some non-communicational farting contest, Harriet grimacing at the smell and Asquith growing redder and redder with anger.

"What's going on here?!" he ordered, causing the trio to stop their little contest. "Where's the rest of the cabinet? Why haven't they been airlifted in?"

"I cancelled it," Green shrugged, as if talking about the weather or sports, but did still have an amused smile glued to his face. It was such an amusing smile, it was almost an evil smile. "They'd only get in the way. Oh, there I go." He let out a giant and long fart, and the other two started to laugh once more.

"Oh, and me!" Margaret participated. "I'm shaking my booty." She let out short but many farts, nearly causing Harriet's death in choking.

"Sir!" Asquith thundered, stopping the trio's fun and games. "Under Section Five of the Emergency Protocols, it is my duty to relieve you of command... and _by God_ , I'll put this country under marshal law if I have to."

"Oh, I'm scared," Green gasped mockingly, stepping toward Asquith with hands slowly reaching up to his forehead. "I mean, that's hair-raising. I mean, literally. Look!" He smiled fully-fledged evilly and grabbed an invisible zipper under his hairline and started to zip open his forehead, Charles and Margaret doing the same.

Harriet watched in horror as the room turned into a flashing blue, and three giant baby-faced aliens climbed out of Green, Charles, and Margaret's body and attacked Asquith brutally. She finally closed her eyes and turned her head away, silent tears rolling down her cheeks from the noises she was unable to block out.

SCENE BREAK

Back in Sato's office, she and the Doctor placed the dead pig back on the examination table (the marines back in their room because there was no danger in a dead pig) for further observation. The scientist was stunned when he explained how it wasn't an alien in the first place, it just came _from_ the UFO and gone unconscious from the crash.

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like," she admitted, still trying to understand, "but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?"

"More like a mermaid," the Doctor continued with the shrug of his shoulders. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish, and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid," Sato nodded, thinking that she was having a good debate with the Time Lord, but unbeknownst to her, he was actually backing out of the room and back toward the TARDIS. "But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien. Aliens are faking aliens. But why would they do that?" When she received no answer, she turned her head and found that he wasn't in the room with her any longer. "Doctor?"

She jogged out of the room and looked both ways down the corridor to see if he was there, but he wasn't even in the building anymore; he had dematerialized the TARDIS back to the Powell Estate to collect Rose and Virgo and do some more investigating.

SCENE BREAK

Virgo was sitting on the toilet in the Tylers' bathroom, just thinking about the whole problem (the UFO crash-landing and her pregnancy), or at least trying to because it felt like her mind was absolutely blank and nothing was coming in. She had been in here for about fifteen minutes now to try and cheer herself up for the Doctor's sake (and maybe even for Rose if she was observant like Jackie was) and she was slowly getting that full-fledged grin on her face again. Problem was, her cheeks were still a little red and she was still a bit shaky.

She hadn't really talked about her pregnancy to anyone, really. At least, not recently. Her mother was her number one source to talk to about these kinds of problems, but now that she and her entire family were gone... She was trapped. The only reason that she suggested that Jackie could join the Doctor, Rose, and her in the TARDIS earlier was that, just maybe, the human could help her and give her some advice (Virgo completely agreed that Jackie would be a horror story in the old box otherwise) on the similarities between Time Lords and humans.

But she was honestly happy when Jackie had connected the dots when she noticed that Virgo was spending an awful amount of time with the toddler, his mother constantly studying to two of them since she didn't know the Time Lady. The confrontation between her and Jackie had started off normally, but when Jackie asked her if she was a mother, she had gone quiet. It was common knowledge that humans were pretty pushy and privacy-invading people, so she had taken Virgo into her bedroom to talk about it in private, and... just went downhill from there.

It _did_ feel good to get her worries off her chest, but now she was feeling guilty that Jackie had to know this and not say a word to anyone about it (at least not to the Doctor or Rose, she'd probably just gossip about it to her friends). It felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of Virgo, but she knew it was only a matter of time before it all came tumbling down again.

Then there was a knock on the door, causing Virgo to come out of her thoughts and glance up at the door where some person was on the other side of it, wanting to use the bathroom, too. She sighed, checking herself in the mirror one final time before standing up and opening the door to find...

Rose.

"Oh, hi!" Virgo laughed cheerfully, cursing herself at how too cheerful that sounded. "You need to use it?" She pointed to the toilet behind her.

"Er...," Rose stuttered. She had grown brave enough to actually knock on the door, telling herself that she was going to talk to the Time Lady about it, but now that they were actually face to face... "Yes! Yes, that's... exactly what I wanted to do. Uh-huh."

Virgo eyed her oddly before stepping out of the way to go back to the living room, Rose closing her eyes sheepishly before taking over the bathroom.

A little while later, when both of them there in the living room, the two of them just sharing funny moments about the Doctor's epic fails at saving the world, Mickey was sprinting up the stairs to find Rose.

Jackie was out of the bedroom and made a toast, "Here's to the Martians!"

"The Martians!" everyone cheered before sipping their glasses of wine with smiles and laughter. The only people who didn't join in were Virgo and Rose, the two of them rolling their eyes at their happiness.

The room suddenly ceased talking when Mickey burst in through the door, out of breath from the stairs (there _were_ a lot of stairs to climb) and scanning the room for the little blonde, who was unaware of her boyfriend's presence. It was only brought to her attention when Virgo nudged her shoulder and pointed to Mickey, who was looking furious and thankful at the same time.

Rose immediately stood up but didn't walk to him since he wasn't walking to her either, "I was going to come and see you..."

"Someone owes Mickey an apology," Ru taunted as she sipped on her wine with a smirk, pleased about this for some reason that no one in the room could conclude to.

"I'm sorry," Rose apologized sincerely to him, sending Ru a sideways glare.

"Not you," Ru nodded toward Jackie, who had come out from the kitchen with a whole serving tray of glasses filled with wine or whisky or something.

"Well, it's not my fault," the said person shrugged casually. "Be fair. What was I supposed to think?"

Rose and Mickey continued to stare at each other in awkwardness and and silence until it was interrupted by Virgo's voice, "Just let it out, Mister Mickey. It's better for all of us if you just let it out so we can all go back to our happy lives."

Mickey furrowed his brows and pointed at himself, mouthing, " _Mister Mickey_?" to Rose, who just shrugged in retaliation. Mr. Mickey was apparently his new nickname... eh, it's got a nice ring to it. Mr. Mickey...

The Time Lady sighed and got up, dragging both of them to the kitchen to let them sort out their problems with silent hope that she wasn't going to be their couple counselor. She would not be good at that because she would just be yelling at the two of them to kiss and apologize when none of them would be sorry at all.

She threw the two of them inside, stepping inside herself, and locked the door so that no one could hear them because Rose might want to tell Mickey about the travels (assuming that she trusted him more than her mother); she couldn't tell the companion who she could tell about the time travel to, but there could be a limit set and certain rules to not take pictures and put them on the internet. That would be very, very bad.

"Talk," Virgo sat down on the counter, not caring if it was rude or not to do that. "Talk to each other or yell at me. If you're going to yell at me, I'm all ears."

Mickey eyed her and Rose, choosing who to let his anger out on, and when he came to a decision, he said to his girlfriend, "You disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend. Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times! No evidence. 'Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all 'cos of you."

"I didn't think I'd be gone so long," Rose looked sheepish at him.

"That's the Doctor's fault, though," Virgo interrupted before Mickey could add a point to his side. "He wanted to prove that he could get you home safely since I had a little talk with him about your safety since you've been getting into some... situations." Mickey didn't have to know that she had been kidnapped two times in a row. "He just said that he could do it, and well... oops."

"What does that mean, oops?" Mickey glared at her. "How could you not know you've been gone for a whole year?!"

"Time machine, Mister Mickey," Virgo snapped her fingers at him. "And, no, I will not stop calling you that. Well, actually, now that I think about it, this is my fault a little bit since I let him drive the TARDIS... yeah, sorry, this is my fault."

"I waited for her!" Mickey pointed at Rose, still glaring at the Time Lady. "Twelve months, waiting for you and her and the Doctor to come back."

"Hold on," Jackie's voice came through the little window that was showing the hallway from the kitchen, her face filling it since the door was locked. "You knew about the Doctor and Virgo? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Yeah, yeah," Mickey nodded smugly at Rose. "Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?"

"Tell me now," the mother demanded, wanting any information regarding where her daughter was for a whole year.

"I might as well, 'cos you're stuck here," Mickey said. "The Doctor's gone. Just now, that box thing faded away."

"What do you mean?" Rose frowned in horror, remembering the Doctor's gift to her and his promise to not disappear.

"He's left you two," Mickey cheered. "Some boyfriend _he_ turned out to be..."

"He's just gone to the Albion Hospital," Virgo shrugged casually, not getting that Mickey said that so that she would be upset, but that was her advantage. She _knew_ the Doctor, and she knew that he wouldn't just sit down and watch the television for humanish purposes.

Rose then ran out of the kitchen, Mickey and Jackie following suite, leaving Virgo in the kitchen and confused as to why Rose was in a sudden panic. He was coming back, you don't need to run outside and wait for him there!

With the roll of her eyes, she got up and jogged after them and ignored the confused stares from the other people at Jackie's alien-welcoming party.

When she got outside, Rose had arrived where she had last seen the TARDIS standing and Mickey and Jackie were behind her.

"He wouldn't just go... he promised me," the little human sighed in disappointment.

"Oh, he's dumped you, Rose," Mickey sneered at her. "Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."

"That's uncalled-for, Mister Mickey," Virgo chastised him with the cross of her arms. "And he hasn't abandoned either of us, he's just gone to the stupid hospital to get some information on the aliens that crash-landed, perhaps get a peek at the spaceship and its technology, and come back. It's not the end of the world if he's gone."

"He's coming back?" Rose's face lit up in happiness and hope.

"I cross my hearts," Virgo promised, making the crossing on her chest with both hands, one on either side of her chest.

"What're you chimps going on about?" Jackie frowned in confusion. "What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"

"Albion Hospital," Virgo turned to her, not snapping at her only because she was a great help earlier. "Getting info then coming back here."

"Yeah, and he gave me this," Rose took out the TARDIS key from her pocket, surprising the Time Lady. "He's not my boyfriend, Mickey. He's better than that. He's much more important than..."

That's when the TARDIS materialized with some wind blowing in their faces, causing some newspapers to fly around in the air before crash-landing onto the road.

"And there he is," Virgo nodded.

"Mum!" Rose quickly turned to her mother and tried to push her to the flat, but she wasn't going anywhere. "Mum, go inside. Mum, don't stand there, just go inside! Just, Mum, go! Oh, blimey."

The TARDIS finished materializing, leaving Jackie and Mickey dumbfounded, while Virgo simply smiled and jogged to the doors.

"Huh?" Mickey blinked, shaking his head to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"How'd you do that, then?" Jackie asked, pointing her finger at the TARDIS.

Rose refused to answer either of them, simply because she didn't know how it materializes and dematerializes. She couldn't just tell them that you pull a lever and it goes; they'd probably want some more logic and science in that, so she just ran to the TARDIS.

A/N: I guess I have to apologize that this chapter doesn't have a lot of the OC involved, so that's one of the reasons why I added that bathroom scene. Very sorry, but we've got one more chapter before WWIII, so that's exciting, right? I wonder what will happen when the missile comes...

I also wanna celebrate because we're up to double digits in the followers for this story! Woo! Bring out the cupcakes, the chocolate cake, the ice cream, the cookies... er, the jello... what's another dessert? ... Oh, brownies! Thank you all so much for following and I know you're reading this in a confused manner as to why I would be happy I got to double digits for the followers. It's because I'm an excitable person (and translate that into a new DW premiere... well, I nearly fangirl to death) and I see that the tiniest things are big accomplishments to me, so... yay! :D


	12. Aliens of London: Giant Baby Aliens

Rose stepped inside the TARDIS to find the Doctor as happy as he could be while Virgo seemed a little... distant with him suddenly. She was crossing her arms ( _again_ , is that something that she just does instinctively?) and sitting on the captain's chair, staring at the monitor the Time Lord was showing her briefly so that he could explain what he found out to her and Rose.

The Time Lady cleared her throat when she glanced over the Doctor's shoulder and saw Rose's figure making her way to the console, eager to know where he had been. He turned around and made a sheepish smile.

"All right, so I lied," he admitted and pretty much danced around the console for his little explanation. "I went and had a look, but the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so! Just _too_ perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben? Come on! So, I thought let's go and have a look-"

"My mum's here," Rose put a hand on his chest to keep him from walking around more, nodding her head toward the door where Mickey and Jackie were making their way up the catwalk. Mickey was handling the bigger-on-the-inside scenario much better than Jackie, as she had her hands covering her mouth in horror, while he just stared at the room in awe, completely forgetting his grudge against the Time Lords for a moment.

"Oh, that's just what I need," the Doctor rolled his eyes in annoyance and pointed a warning finger at her. "Don't you _dare_ make this place domestic."

Mickey shook his head to snap himself out of his daze and glared furiously at the Doctor, "You ruined my life, Doctor! They thought she was dead. I was a _murder suspect_ because of you!"

"You see what I mean?" the Time Lord gestured to Mickey, as if to prove his point perfectly. "Domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name," the little human stood up to him face-to-face with a face full of confidence.

"Ricky."

"It's _Mickey_."

"No, it's _Ricky_."

"I think I know my own name!"

"You _think_ you know your own name?" the Doctor scoffed, unable to believe what he was hearing right now. "How stupid are you?"

"All right, that's enough," Virgo leaned her head on the head cushion, just so done with arguments for one day. Little squabbles with him and Rose? She could handle that, but add a whole suitcase and spill it all in one day with immense shouting and glares? Nope! "I think we all know what his real name is..." Mickey just smirked, thinking that he had gotten the Doctor defeated. "It's obviously Mister Mickey. Get it right, the both of you."

Before Mickey could say it was _just_ Mickey, Rose had watched her mother run out of the TARDIS from the lack of an explanation on the bigger-on-the-inside-science and horror of the technology.

"Mum, don't!" she ran after her out of the TARDIS and watched her run back to the flat. She wanted to follow her, but she knew the aliens that crash landed wouldn't solve itself and she wanted to be there with the Time Lords for the saving the world bit. She loved this world; she didn't want it to die just yet. "Mum, it's not like that. They're not... I'll be up in a minute! Hold on!" She walked back into the box. "That was a real spaceship."

"Yep," the Doctor nodded.

"So... it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert," Mickey mused with a small frown on his face. It _was_ a good point. In alien invasions, you generally want to keep your landing a secret until you have all the weapons and enough human test subjects to take over the world in a snap of the fingers; not crash-landing in the middle of a big city where plenty of people were now aware of them. Granted, they really could have actually crash-landed on accident and were only passing by the Earth to go to some other planet beyond it, like Venus or Mercury.

"I don't think it's an invasion," Virgo shook her head. "Like you said before, it's _too_ much of a perfect crash."

"And that means... what're they up to?" the Doctor agreed inspirationally, causing Rose and Mickey to ponder deeply about it for a few minutes.

SCENE BREAK

Jackie was sitting on her bed with the TV on and watching the news station with Tom Hitchinson just like the rest of the world, trying to get rid of the image of the TARDIS's interior and the fact that Rose had stayed in there for a year (she still didn't know it time travelled). She was absolutely horrified and now she was getting mad again at the Time Lords, forget about earlier!

" _As the crisis continues and the government shows remarkable lack of leadership, paranoia sweeps the country_ ," the reporter said in some station. " _There've been at least three reports of public assaults on people falsely identified as aliens. Now back to Tom Hitchinson._ "

" _Are there more ships to come?_ " Hitchinson questioned his audience. " _And what is their intention? The authorities are now asking if anyone knows anything. If any previous sightings has been made, then call this number. We need your help._ "

Jackie glanced down at the phone number displayed on the screen and thought about it for a moment. It didn't really take a genius to guess that Virgo and the Doctor was beings from another world, thanks to Virgo's little description of her backstory. What happened to her would have never have happened on Earth... so they were obviously aliens. And they _could_ be the aliens that the government needs, if you really think about it...

She nodded to herself in determination to keep Rose safe, so she grabbed her phone and dialed the number, but just got the voicemail which made her huff.

When she finally got someone on the phone, she said, "Yes, I've seen one. I really have. An alien, and she's with him. My daughter, she's with him. And she's not safe! Oh, my God. She's not safe. I've seen an alien, and I know his name: he's called the Doctor." The only reason she wasn't mentioning Virgo was that she may be an alien, but she was clearly traumatized. It didn't feel right to expose her to all the police and news stations; she was _human_ , and she knew how being pregnant feels. It's not really fun, the back pains and mood swings.

"It's a box. A blue box. She called it a TARDIS."

SCENE BREAK

Mickey causally walked over to where the Doctor was working under the console, tinkering away. He was growing more and more curious as to what he was doing because he was lying under there for nearly a full fifteen minutes while Virgo was leaning on the console and suggesting that the Doctor put this wire here and put that wire there. They were obviously trying to do something, so the question is this: what are they doing?

"So... what're you doing down there?" the human asked the Time Lord on sheer curiosity.

The Doctor groaned in annoyance and wheeled himself from under his workplace, "Ricky-"

" _Mickey_ ," the said man glared at him.

" _Mister Mickey_ ," Virgo smirked, having too much fun with saying those words. She liked it so much, it was starting to disturb her a bit. She didn't even know why he hated being called 'Mr. Mickey;' shouldn't he be smiling since Mr. means to be a proper gentleman?

"Ricky," the Doctor continued. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even _begin_ to understand?"

"I suppose not," Mickey frowned, already knowing what he was possibly going to say next.

"Well, _shut it_ , then," the Doctor hissed at him before wheeling back under the console to do some more work.

"Okay, now I say some rude things myself, but that was uncalled for," Virgo glared at the alien under the console, then turned to Mickey. "I'm sorry about that. We're basically getting a video version of the spaceship's last twelve hours in space before it crashed, _which is not hard to dumb down_." She directed that last part to the Time Lord and could already imagine him rolling her eyes at her.

"Yeah, well," Mickey shook his head, "some friend you've got."

"He's winding you up, like she said," Rose apologized as well and found herself staring at Mickey and him at her in silence for a few moments. "... I _am_ sorry."

"Okay," was all he could say to her.

"I am, though," she took his hand and gave it a nice, little squeeze of reassurance.

"Every day, I looked. On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

"It's only been a few days for me. I don't know. It's... it's hard to tell inside this thing, but I swear it's just a few days since I left you."

"Not enough time to miss me, then?" Mickey looked a bit crestfallen at that realization, making Rose feel like her heart was breaking for him.

"I did miss you," she lied only to make him feel better because the truth was... she honestly didn't miss his company while she was away. She wasn't a clingy girlfriend; she didn't need his presence in the year five billion or 1869 Cardiff.

"I missed _you_ ," Mickey spoke truthfully, unlike Rose.

Virgo smiled sadly at the sight in front of her, just two young people being flirty and upset and caring all at the same time (okay, maybe not that flirty). She remembered when she was like that with her stupid husband... oh, _such_ a long time ago. Those were the easy days; no worries, looking forward to new days, and just being happy. Where had the time gone?

"So, er, in twelve months, have you been... seeing anyone else?" Rose asked cautiously, honestly scared of knowing if it was a yes.

"No," Mickey denied, though not looking thrill about it.

"Okay," she sighed in relief, because for a second she thought he was going to say-

"Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you."

"Right...," Rose slowly frowned, basically having her hope shredded and thrown in the garbage can on trash day. So... does that mean that he _would_ have seen someone else if people thought he was innocent of a crime? For her, they were still together because it was only a few days, but for him... the relationship might as well be over if he went a year with no contact or kisses from her. And she wouldn't blame him if he did see someone else. She wouldn't be very happy about it, oh she _knew_ she wouldn't be, but at least they could make him happy.

"So, now that you've come back, are you going to stay?" Mickey asked her slowly, so full of hope that it made her heart shatter all over again.

Virgo studied Rose's face for her answer. If the girl wasn't speaking, then it was probably because it was a no and she hated to hurt his feelings, or it was a yes and she didn't want to disappoint the Time Lords. The Time Lady glanced back at the monitor to check on the progress, and it was completed.

"You've got it!" she cheered and the Doctor did a second later. "It's working!"

"Ha, ha!" the Doctor exclaimed as he wheeled himself from under the console and ran to the monitor and stood next to Virgo, her being directly in front of the monitor. Rose and Mickey scurried over to them to see what it is they've done. "Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship."

"Okay, that's the spaceship coming to Earth," Virgo pointed to the tiny spaceship interpretation on the screen, Earth was a circle at the end of the monitor, and neither of those two were in color. "Now watch." They all saw the spaceship not go directly to the planet to crash-land, but it _circled_ it before 'crashing' into London. "The spaceship didn't just crash, it went all around until it finally did its so-called crash-land."

"What does that mean?" Rose questioned.

"It means it came for Earth in the first place," the Doctor explained. "It went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for awhile. The question is, what have they been doing?"

SCENE BREAK

Now that they were done with trying to find out about the spaceship, Rose and Mickey could now use the monitor to surf through the channels since it was apparently connected to the satellites now. When either of the Time Lords did this, they had no idea and quite frankly, they didn't really care. They couldn't really find anything interesting, hence the continuous flipping through channels.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked the Time Lords while he was commandeering the remote that was apparently connected to the TARDIS. Who knew even the old box had some kind of form of entertainment?

"All the basic packages," the Doctor told him from behind. Him and Virgo were just watching them flip through the channels while they were observing the split-second images for anything that might come of use to them, or directions to where to go to now.

"You get sports?" Mickey asked, which was the main channel he was trying to find while Rose probably wanted something with a chick-flick film.

Virgo rolled her eyes at him. It was _always_ about sports, wasn't it? Almost every single male human she spoke to could definitely have an opinion on sports and listen to it on the radio for hours without getting bored. They... _do_ do other stuff, right? Sports doesn't have to revolve around their lives because there are plenty of other fun things to get done, like knitting or cooking. She had also meet some girls who were just as enthusiastic as the boys, but there were only some.

"Yes, I get football," the Doctor chuckled before something caught his eye. "Hold on, I know that lot." He took the remote from Mickey and went back a channel where a woman was reporting somewhere outside and a bunch a people were in the background, all going inside to 10 Downing Street.

" _It is looking likely that the government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space_ ," the woman said slowly and clearly like every reporter has to do.

"UNIT," the Doctor nodded, confirming his suspicions. "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce."

"They're lovely people," Virgo smiled a bit at this, recalling when the Doctor would tell her about his time with them when he was exiled on Earth. "Bit violent, but lovely nonetheless."

"How do you know them?" Rose eyed them both.

Before either of them could explain, Mickey beat them to it, "'Cos he's worked for them. Oh yeah, don't think I sit on my backside for twelve months. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by _a list of the dead_."

"Okay," Virgo smiled tensely at him. "Now you've gone to the no-no zone. You can stop whenever you like."

"And there wasn't anything on you," Mickey turned on her. "It's weird, you're just... not there. Are you some intergalactic assassin or something?"

"Opposite of that," she frowned. "I've just been a bit cleaner than this dunce. I actually watch out what I say to people who'll be writing things down. I haven't even been here for long anyway... and I'm honestly surprised you couldn't find at least a tiny little slip."

"Thank you, Ricky," the Doctor said sarcastically with a glare.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked him quickly to avoid further arguments.

"Let's just say... he's gotten a bit old," Virgo supplied simply because she didn't want to go in depth about regeneration which would raise many, many questions, no doubt.

"And the world's on a knife-edge," the Doctor agreed. "There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And er, we'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey asked him.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

As soon as the four of them stepped outside, they were all blinded by a bright light from a helicopter a little ways up, and once they cleared their eyesight, they saw dozens of police cars and policemen and women with their guns pointed at them. Talk about making an entrance.

"Do not move!" the police from the helicopter ordered. "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads!"

Mickey, being the coward he was, didn't want to be arrested so he quickly ran away from the group and hid behind some dustbins while Jackie was running down the block to get her daughter back. When she had called the police, she had imagined the Doctor being taken into custody or something and then handing her daughter back to her, not this! If anything, this was the exact opposite of what she wanted.

"Rose!" the worried-to-death mother hollered after her, but she couldn't get to Rose because a few soldiers held her back to not interfere. "Rose!"

"Raise your hands above your head!" the police from the helicopter continued to order. "You are under arrest!"

And so the trio did, with the Doctor all smiles and excitement, Rose still squinting through the bright light, and Virgo feeling tense and eyeing the guns uneasily. She knew what this was all about, but she still didn't like the guns being pointed at her in the state she's in now. She honestly wanted to get back into the TARDIS and just hide away from them, but even an idiot would know that would be a horrible move to make.

"Take me to your leader!" the Doctor cheered, probably fangirling on the inside because he had always wanted to say that; Rose just rolled her eyes at him.

They then followed the police's orders to get into a police car in the backseat, and once they were in, it drove off. The other officers went to their own cars to go to wherever they were taking the trio to, a place everyone here knew quite well, except for Rose. She was still a teenager and haven't really gotten an opportunity to walk the halls yet, but maybe she will if she ever gets to go to college.

"This is a bit posh," the girl remarked with surprise dancing in her eyes. "If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

"Common sense," Virgo laughed, sitting in between her and the Doctor. "Criminals don't get this luxury. We're not being arrested, we're being _escorted_ to guess where."

"Where to?" Rose asked her.

"10 Downing Street," the Time Lady smirked at her, awaiting her reaction that would probably be excitement or misery, depends on the type of person she was. If she hated politics then she'd be groaning, but if it was vice versa she'd be squealing.

"You're kidding," she gaped, not an exact reaction just yet, but was slowly smiling.

"I am not. We're heading over to 10 Downing Street, where that UNIT lot were."

"Oh, my God," Rose squealed into her fist, nearly jumping out of the seat with the seatbelt pushing her back down. "I'm going to 10 Downing Street?! How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right," the Doctor grumbled at the mention of his name. Did he seriously think that Rose's boyfriend was worse than the Daleks? "Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed."

"Now they need you?"

"Like it said on the news, they're gathering experts in alien knowledge," he nodded with a smile, happy to express his knowledge once more. "And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

Rose merely pointed to Virgo, the girl chuckling and the Doctor shaking his head and gestured to himself broadly.

"No?" Rose raised an eyebrow. "Then... Patrick Moore?" His ego was so big, wasn't it? _Oh, I'm the smartest man in the universe! Oh, look at me, I just saved the world again! You can thank me later. Now, watch me explain this very complicated theory as fast as lightning so you'll never be able to keep up!_

"Apart from him," he sighed.

"Oh, don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you! Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"I should I know?" Rose shrugged and looked out the window to see where they were, if they were close or not. "I missed a year."

"I _believe_ it's supposed to be Harriet Jones right about now," Virgo pondered aloud, a distant look on her when she's thinking. "Golden Age should be either now or next year or two years, I can never remember. She was my favourite Prime Minister." She turned to Rose. "Do you recall a Harriet Jones anywhere?" The human shook her head, though the name did sound like it would ring a bell.

"I think it's too early for Harriet to be the Minister," the Doctor shrugged.

"If that's true... then who is it?"

SCENE BREAK

A little while later, while the trio had arrived at 10 Downing Street, Jackie was consulting with an officer back at the Powell Estate in her flat, needing to make sure that her daughter was going to be okay and not into any kind of trouble whatsoever. If she was in any trouble, even the most powerful man on Earth would be an ant to her when it came to Rose's safety. If it was her and a werewolf fighting over her, Jackie would win that fight using her bare hands and a few kicks in the teeth. Ouch!

"So, she's all right then?" Jackie asked Officer Strickland while pacing around the living room. "She's not in any trouble?"

"Well," the large man began as he headed over to a chair, "all I can say is your daughter and her companions might be in a position to help the country. We'll need to know how she made contact with these people, if the man is a man." As he sat down, his stomach made a sound that would probably make you cringe. "Oof. Right, off you go then." He was talking to the other two policemen in the room. "I need to talk with Mrs Tyler on my own, thank you."

The two officers nodded in respect and left the flat, leaving Strickland and Jackie alone in the flat. Why does that sound like a bad thing...?

SCENE BREAK

The time travelling trio were now walking the very halls of the Prime Minister's office, an experience that few people had been able to contain in their memories in their lifetimes. The thrill, the excitement, and the nervousness all lead up to this building, the building where anything was possible... in the political viewpoint.

They were escorted over to Ganesh, the secretary that suffered the wrath of Harriet Jones, who was handing out ID cards to the alien experts, "Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as you can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." The trio walked over to him and he handed the Doctor his ID. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere without her," the Doctor nodded his head to Virgo with a glare.

" _You're_ the code nine, not her," Ganesh insisted. "I'm sorry, Doctor - it is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay with the other one outside."

" _She's staying with me._ "

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

"You go on in," Virgo interrupted the argument before the Doctor could fight back, knowing how persistent humans could get. "It's not like it's the first time you've done this. You go on in there and save the world one more time, and I'll just be cheering you on from outside." She gave him a small smile and he sighed.

"Excuse me," a voice came from behind them that made the Time Lady widen her eyes in amazement. "Are you the Doctor?"

"Sure," the said man shrugged.

"Oh, my God," Virgo turned her head to Harriet and beamed with a giant smile. "Harriet Jones!"

"Not now," Ganesh groaned openly while Harriet eyed Virgo oddly, unsure how she recognized her. She wasn't famous or anything... yet. "We're busy. Can't you go home?!"

"I just need a word in private," Harriet pleaded desperately. Before she could argue any further, the Doctor gave her an apologetic look before going into the room with all the experts were in, including Green and Asquith, who were the bad guys apparently. Giant, baby-faced aliens were underneath the skin, killing the original person who knew that body by heart.

"You haven't got clearance," Ganesh rubbed it in even further. "Now leave it!" He turned his attention to Virgo and Rose. "I'm going to have to leave you with security."

"Actually...," the Time Lady looked between him and Harriet Jones (she was even big on human politics, so why was she still squealing on the inside?). "Do you mind if Rose and I hang out with Harriet for a little bit? You know, 'cos she clearly knows her way around here...?" Harriet would have thought that was sarcasm, but when she looked at her face, she looked genuine hopeful which confused her greatly. Why her? She wasn't all that important, she wasn't the Prime Minister, she hardly knew where a simple bathroom was in here.

Ganesh sighed and Virgo and Harriet took that as the symbol of approval, and so she faced the future Prime Minister eagerly.

"Walk with me," Harriet told them as they walked through the office, determined to get back to the cabinet room. "Just keep walking. That's right. Don't look round." She flashed her card at them. "Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"I already know who you are," Virgo laughed at the classic card. "Oh, this is brilliant. The one and only."

"I'm quite flattered," Harriet smiled at her. She led the newly formed trio over to a couch in a hall where there weren't too many people standing around in. She didn't want to tell them about the aliens in a room full of people because two things: one, the aliens could be in that very same room, and two someone would hear there's an alien on the loose, a deadly alien, and go looking for it and get themselves killed. Human nature at its highest, huh? "This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?"

"Well, she knows a thing or two about them, as well," Rose gestured to Virgo who merely nodded. "But why do you want to know?"

That's when poor Harriet Jones burst into the tears, crying into her hands.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor and the other experts were sitting in the briefing room at tables organized like a classroom, a giant classroom for adults. It's not a bad analogy if you really think about it. The Doctor was going to be the teacher (sooner or later, don't worry) and he would just be blurting out random knowledge of what he knew about the spaceship in the Thames in order to figure out what happened and what's going to happen in the near future. The experts were going to learn a thing or two today, so this room really was a classroom.

He had already looked at the packet of papers in front of him, but it just served no purpose whatsoever. That made him realize that Green and Asquith were going to make a pointless introduction about something before really discussing the topic. What is it with humans and introductions? It made him want to claw his own eyes out... which is really gross and he'll never do that.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please?" Asquith announced and all the experts looked up, excluding the Doctor. "As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant."

"Of course, the _really_ interesting bit happened three days ago," the Doctor interrupted as he began his inspirational speech/ramble to conclude the whole situation, "see, filed away under 'Any Other Business.' A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at 100 fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens: spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what?"

Green and Asquith exchanged a quick glance, Green nodded, barely noticeable even by Asquith.

SCENE BREAK

The new trio were in the cabinet room, where Harriet was showing the girls what had happened in here. The poor thing could barely talk because it was the scariest and most cruel thing she had ever witnessed in her life, witness a man die and have something stuffed into his skin. Oh, it must have been horrible.

"They turned the body into a suit!" she cried into her hands and Rose and Virgo tried to comfort her. "A disguise for the thing inside!"

"It's all right," Virgo put her arm around Harriet's shoulder and let her cry. "I'm sorry you witnessed that, but thank you for telling us. That's very good information to have. And you know what?" Harriet shook her head. "I'm sure the general would have thanked you, too, if he still could. I'd be pretty upset if someone killed me and used my body to kill someone. Harriet, you're helping more people than you believe right now, so thank you." The future Prime Minister managed to smile slightly, feeling better.

"Brilliant," Virgo smiled back, then let Rose have a hand in the comforting so she could figure this out. "So aliens that are giant and green fit into a large human body. Compression field, I guess. Don't know what else it could be. There could be a little controller for it in this room, and if we manage to find that... we have surprise on our side." She went over to the closet and opened it up, only to jump back when a dead body fell out from it. It wasn't Oliver Charles, but... well...

"Oh, my God!" Rose gasped and ran over to the body. "Is that the-?"

"Harriet, for God's sake," Ganesh chose this moment of all moments in the world to enter the cabinet room with the roll of his eyes. "This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander..." His eyes fell onto the dead body, thankfully not jumping to conclusion about it. "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor was still rambling in the briefing room with amused smiles coming from the unknown enemy, "If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get? Us. They get us..." It dawned on him, like an epiphany. "It's not a diversion... it's a _trap_."

SCENE BREAK

Ganesh was about to ask more questions about the dead Prime Minister when a door opened from behind them, and Margaret entered, Harriet identifying her as the alien that helped kill poor Asquith.

"Oh!" the alien gasped mockingly. "Has someone been naughty?" She slammed the door with an evil grin.

SCENE BREAK

"It was bigger on the inside," Jackie explained to Strickland about the TARDIS as she got up to make some tea to calm herself down. She was already calming down on her own, but she'd like some help with it. "I don't know. What do I know about spaceships?"

"That's what worries me," Strickland mused, taking her absence in the living room as his opportunity. "You see, this man is classified as trouble, which means that anyone associated with him is trouble, and that's my job." He stood up, removed his cap, and started to unzip his forehead. "Eliminating trouble."

SCENE BREAK

"That's impossible," Ganesh stared at an approaching Margaret in disbelief. "He left this afternoon! The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

"And who told you that, hmm?" Margaret taunted, enjoying the realization in everyone's faces. "Me." She reached up to her hairline, causing Harriet to swallow hard because she knew what was going to happen next.

SCENE BREAK

"This is about us," the Doctor pondered quickly. "Alien experts. The only people with knowledge how to fight them gathered together in one room." Green farted and the Doctor turned around, annoyed. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?"

"Would you rather silent but deadly?" Green chuckled as Asquith removed his cap and unzipped his forehead, filling the room with a blue light blur. Green continued to laugh madly and didn't bother to watch the Asquith alien climb out of his body, while Margaret and Strickland were doing the same to their victims. The aliens were about eight feet tall and a bit chubby around the belly, themselves. Their eyes were giant and black with no pupils and blinked sideways instead of up and down.

"We are the Slitheen," Asquith said with a blink while Margaret shoved Ganesh into a wall after she was completely out of her body.

Green stood up and took out a little device that acted as a switch, "Thank you for wearing your ID cards... They'll help to identify the bodies." He pressed a button, and everyone else in the room convulsed in pain as the cards around their necks electrocuted them to death. The Doctor fell on his knees trying to get the card off him, sad that he couldn't help the humans who were slumping down on the desk or the sides of the chairs to die.

As his vision started to get a little blurry, he couldn't help hoping that Virgo was okay...

To Be Continued In... World War Three!

A/N: Huzzah! We're done with the first portion in our first two-parter in the season with about two more two-parters left, so that's gotta be good progress :D I feel like the Slitheen are probably the most alien-like out of all the aliens that had appeared in Doctor Who because they look like aliens that everyone would think of, plus or minus a few features. I'm very excited for Parting of Ways with Ten, as cruel as that sounds. Nine just scares me a little, and I can't help it. He's just... not my Doctor that I know and love.

Thank you for the usual, as always, with much from the heart. Hope you have a nice rest of the morning/noon/night, wherever you are :)


	13. World War Three: Emergency Protocols

A/N: It's a disclaimer, I'm putting disclaimers in my story now. Disclaimers are cool.

The Doctor managed to get his ID card out from around his neck and into his hands, creating a giant ball of blue electricity that caused Green and Asquith (if he could) to frown. You underestimate Time Lords, Slitheen Asquith. Never give the Doctor the power of electricity!

"Deadly to humans maybe," he sneered at them then charged as fast as he could to the naked Slitheen and attach the card around its neck, causing not only Asquith but Green as well to shriek out in pain with surrounding electric bolts. Since Green was affected by Asquith's pain, that means that Margaret and Strickland were also being affected, which means that Virgo, Rose, and Jackie were now safe temporarily... except that Jackie's Slitheen had cornered her in her kitchen.

SCENE BREAK

That's why poor Jackie was in the corner of the kitchen, on the floor, looking absolutely terrified of the Slitheen shaking in pain with the sudden electricity. She was confused at what was making it behave like this, but she was still scared of it, nonetheless.

Mickey, however, was more brave than thought of before, because when he entered at the perfect moment to the Tyler flat, he grabbed a chair with the shout of, "Jackie!" He smashed the chair on the Slitheen's back and it keeled over on the floor, so he took that opportunity to help Jackie up.

They ran out of the kitchen, but it didn't take long for the Slitheen to recover from its fall, but it was still being electrocuted. How unfortunate. Mickey, for whatever reason, thought it was the perfect moment to take out his phone and take a picture of the alien, then ran out with Jackie's hand in his.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor ran out of the briefing room and into the hallway where a bunch of soldiers just happened to be standing there in conversation with each other, much like the soldiers from Dr. Sato's office (or maybe they were the same group... we may never know for sure).

"Oi!" he shouted at them for attention. "If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!" He clapped his hands and guided them inside the briefing room... only to find Asquith was back in the general's body and the both of them were no longer being electrocuted. Oh well, worth a shot, he supposed.

SCENE BREAK

Virgo, Harriet, and Rose were running in a hallway for only about ten to fifteen seconds before Harriet came to a complete stop, nearly making Virgo crash into her back that would cause her to crash into Rose's back... and all would have ended for them.

"What?" Virgo managed to stop on her toes, looking exasperated. "We need to go! What is it?!"

"They're still in there," Harriet widened her eyes, thinking about what Margaret would do with the files in the cabinet room. "The Emergency Protocols. We need them." She took off running back to the cabinet room with Rose, Virgo staying behind and stared after them as though they were completely mad. Was that really important right now?! Unless it had some secret code on them that would unleash World War Three, it didn't need to be saved right now. Margaret could be recovering any moment now!

Her thoughts were confirmed when she saw Harriet and Rose running around the corner with Margaret chasing them, her claws out and screeching loudly that it would be impossible for someone to not hear it.

SCENE BREAK

"Where have you been?" Green demanded with the glare of his eyes at all the soldiers, who were now examining the dead bodies in the chairs or on the floor. The Doctor had to hand it to him, he was a great actor. "I called for help! I sounded the alarm! There was this... lightning, this kind of... er, electricity, and they all collapsed."

"I think they're all dead," Officer Price announced solemnly with his gun out, like every officer in the room.

"That's what I'm saying," Green agreed and pointed to the Doctor in an accusing manner. "He did it! That man there!"

The Doctor just stared at him in offense and raised eyebrows, "I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise..." Green crossed his arms and stared at him, now _he_ was offended. "That's never going to work, is it?" That question was for the soldiers.

"No," the closest officer shook his head sheepishly.

"Fair enough," the Time Lord sighed. Well, running time!

He sprinted out of the room in lightning speed with everyone in the room chasing after him. He was doing good until he came to the hallway where another entire group of soldiers were standing and pointed their guns at him, making him stop. He raised his hands in surrender with a sigh, probably thinking that humans were so gullible... but Green was quite a good actor. No wonder he's gotten this far in whatever his plan was.

Asquith emerged into the room, stumbling because he hadn't quite recovered from the electricity and _had_ been directly electrocuted, "Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorise you to _execute this man_!"

"Well, now, yes," the Doctor chuckled nervously, or so he was trying to act that way. "You see, er, the thing is, if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you and me, little word of advice." There was a ding and elevator doors opened behind him. "Don't stand them against the lift!" He jumped in it and flashed the sonic to lock the doors so that the soldiers couldn't follow him.

A short journey up and eventually the elevator doors opened for quite a sight in front of him: another Slitheen, Margaret, was chasing the trio through the hallway.

"Hello!" he cheered with a fake smile, causing Margaret to change her target to him, which was exactly what he wanted. Behind it, Virgo pulled Harriet and Rose down the hallway after Rose spared a glare at him. Once he thought a respectable distance was between them and the Slitheen, he closed the doors with his sonic once again.

Meanwhile, the trio came to a dead end in some kind of living room.

"Hide!" Rose whispered or hissed, one or the other works fine. Virgo took out her sonic and flashed it at the door, locking it to buy some time for hiding and decided to hide behind a curtain in the back of the room, Rose chose to hide behind a small cabinet behind a couch, and Harriet hid behind a screen used for changing out of your clothes... or for some other purpose like decoration. That was a weird comparison...

SCENE BREAK

"I repeat," Asquith commanded the soldiers downstairs while waiting for the elevator to come back down, so that meant the Doctor was out of the elevator and freely roaming the halls. That was bad for the Slitheen, "the upper floors are under quarantine. You will stay where you are. You will disregard all previous instructions. You will take your orders directly from me."

The elevator arrived and he and Green stepped inside it, well Green was _about_ to step inside it before Officer Price beat him to it with grabbing his arm.

"Mister Green, sir," Price spoke. "I'm sorry, but you've got to come with me. We should evacuate the entire building."

"Sergeant, have you read the Emergency Protocols?" Green raised an eyebrow at him, as though questioning him why he would want to go with Price.

"No, sir," the sergeant frowned, worrying that he should have probably taken a glimpse at it.

"Then don't question me. Seal off Number Ten, secure the ground floor, and if the Doctor makes it downstairs... _shoot on sight_!" Green stepped inside the elevator angrily and smashed his finger on a button to either close the doors or choose a floor to go up to.

Price blinked at the orders then shook his head and faced his fellow officers, who were gaping at the elevator doors as well.

"Well, you heard him," Price shrugged. "Move out!"

Inside the elevator, Green was looking like he had just ran a marathon because he was sweating and panting a little, while Asquith looked refreshed with his evil smirk at the hunt upstairs and the family coming to visit very soon. He was quite excited to see them all again for one last bow as the world's heros before being revealed that they were all giant, baby-faced aliens.

"Let the sport begin," Asquith chuckled quietly while staring at the doors as if he could just see the future unfolding through them.

Green, however, let out a little, uncomfortable fart, "I'm getting poisoned by the gas exchange. I _need_ to be _naked_."

"Rejoice in it," Asquith eyed him as if he was mad to... 'not be naked.' "Your body is magnificent."

Green seemed to agree because he nodded and reached up to his hairline to escape the human prison with blue light all around the room. Asquith decided he wanted to be naked once again, so he took off his cap and unzipped the body as well.

SCENE BREAK

It seemed it didn't take long for Margaret to break down the door in the living room, where the trio were hiding in, so you could imagine that Virgo was cursing to herself that the door wouldn't stop her. Of course, it's a wooden door! Every single alien species out there are all terrified of wood.

"Oh, such fun," Margaret taunted as she walked around the room, her voice now sounding odd. "Little human children, where are you? Sweet, little honeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with me big, green lips."

Rose suddenly jumped up from her hiding place and joined Virgo behind the curtains, a bit jealous that the Time Lady's hiding spot was a lot better and safer than hers, but that's not important right now.

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor was running down some flight of stairs to find out where Virgo, Rose, and Harriet were at. It was an understatement to say that he wasn't that worried that they were all dead, because the Slitheen _were big beasts_ and it wouldn't be a challenge for them to break down doors and outrun them. It was also an understatement to say that Virgo wouldn't be prepared to fight them with a little trick up her sleeve.

He had just reached around a corner when he saw that the elevator door opened that was full of two Slitheen aliens, so he quickly hid behind the wall to hear what they were saying.

"It does us good to hunt," Green stated as he and Asquith stepped out. "Purifies the blood."

"We'll keep this floor quarantined as our last hunting ground before the final phase," Asquith agreed as the two of them walked down a corridor, unaware that the Doctor was now following them.

He followed them into the living room, where Margaret sighed happily when she saw Green and Asquith enter the room.

"My brothers," she warmly greeted them with a little dance with her feet, not even having to tell them that three humans (well, two humans and one alien, but apparently the Slitheen couldn't smell aliens differently).

"Happy hunting?" Green asked her.

"It's _wonderful_ ," Margaret nodded and gestured around her while still trying to find where everyone was hiding. "The more you prolong, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear," Asquith noticed, apparently sweat and fear were two different senses.

"I can smell an old girl," Green stated with a sniff. "Stale bird and brittle bones."

"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin," Margaret added as she made her way over to the curtain, Virgo preparing herself for a good fight of her lifetime. "Fresh enough to bend before she _snaps_." The Slitheen pulled back the curtain and caused Rose to scream with fear.

Virgo, however, grabbed the curtain and pulled it down onto Margaret and took out her screwdriver and pointed it at Asquith and Green in a threatening manner. When Margaret shook herself out from the curtain, she pointed it at her, too.

"Come any closer and I _will_ electrocute you with this _very_ dangerous weapon," the Time Lady warned them with her clever lie, Harriet running out from her hiding place to join them. Hey, if they were going to die, might as well die together. "I know _you_ know how that feels, Asquith or whoever the hell you really are, and I bet that felt very painful. If you want to avoid that fate, I suggest you let us leave this room quietly. No one gets hurt and no one has to die. Is that clear?"

"Why would we be afraid of a measly, little wand?" Green wondered as he took a step toward them, obviously not buying that the sonic screwdriver was a weapon.

"Because it gets you to buy some time," Virgo sneered at him as she put the sonic back in her pocket. "Doctor, what've you got?" How she knew that the Doctor was on the other side of the door, well, she had her telepathy to thank.

The Doctor burst into the room with a fire extinguisher and blasted it at all of the Slitheen with no mercy. Who knew that aliens from another world were so susceptible to such simple things? Everyone has a weakness, but... really? Electricity and extinguishers? Even Superman has a better weakness than that, and he has only one of them!

"Out, with me!" the Time Lord ordered Rose, Harriet and Virgo as they all ran over to him while he tried his best to not block their path with the white stuff. He paused in his action and turned to Harriet. "Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," she replied quickly, not breaking contact with the incoming Slitheen.

"Oh, _you're_ Harriet," the Doctor realized with a nod. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise!" she also nodded and the Doctor blasted at the Slitheen one last time before ditching it and all four of them ran out of the room.

"We need to head to the cabinet room," he announced as they turned a corner while the Slitheen recovered from the extinguisher and were now chasing them with one mission: to violently kill them.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there," Harriet agreed, desperate to get back to the blasted files. "They give instructions for aliens."

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you, too."

"Me three!" Virgo cheered with a laugh, if not a bit tense that they were being chased. That'd normally be the fun part, the ridiculous amount of running part, but she just wasn't into it right now.

They made it to the cabinet room with the Slitheen just barely on their tails, so what does the Doctor do to stop them? Come up with a clever lie, that's what!

He picked up a decanter that was sitting on a side table next to the doorway and got his sonic out and pointed it at it, "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." The Slitheen actually believed it, so they actually did take one step away from them. "Right then, question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens!" Harriet blurted out as if that wasn't already obvious.

"I think we all know that at this point," Virgo sighed and leaned against the doorway. This was going to be a _long_ question time, wasn't it?

"Who are you, if not human?" Green questioned him with his sideways blink that was absolutely disgusting.

"Who's not human?" Harriet whispered to Rose, annoying both Time Lords. What part of question time did they not understand? Harriet may be new to saving the world, but could she not take a hint to just let them talk to the Slitheen to actually figure out what they wanted before they figured out the clever lie?

"They're not human," Rose nodded to them.

"They're not human?"

"Can I have a bit of hush?" the Doctor asked harshly, just wanting to get this bit over with so he could save the world and get back to the TARDIS for maybe a quick nap or two. He hasn't slept in quite awhile, so he might be feeling a bit more heartless than usual.

"Sorry," Harriet apologized quietly.

"Can you tell us what the plan is now?" Virgo asked the Slitheen, who were staring at them oddly.

"But he's got a Northern accent and she's got a Southern one," Harriet whispered to Rose.

"Lots of planets have a north and south," the said girl shrugged.

"Harriet Jones, for God's sake, please just keep your mouth shut for two minutes," Virgo snapped at her and made Harriet widen her eyes. "We're trying to communicate with the enemy here, which by the way, doesn't happen very often. We'd both appreciate it if you could just... stay silent. Okay? Thank you." She turned back to the Slitheen with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. Debate?"

"You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea," the Doctor pointed out, giving the Slitheen a place to start their explaining "It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

Asquith looked horrified at the thought of their presence being an invasion, "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen _race_?" Asquith probably would have laughed at that if he could at the misunderstanding. Oh dear, that was quite funny to think that all the Slitheen here were one tiny race when, in reality, the rest of their race was on a planet with a name so big it was ridiculous.

"Slitheen is not our species," Green explained it to them. "Slitheen is our _surname_. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Passameer-Day-Slitheen, at your service." He even supplied it with a little bow that a human butler would do.

"Oh, that's cute," Virgo smirked. "You're all just a big family."

"A family _business_."

"If you're a business, then I'm just going to assume that you want what every business wants: profit," Virgo stated. "What makes you think you'll find your money here on this 'God-forsaken rock?'"

"Ah, excuse me?" Asquith took a step forward and pointed his claw at the decanter in the Doctor's hand. "Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?" the Doctor blinked, actually surprising himself.

"You're making it up," Asquith accused angrily, not believing that he was fooled.

"It was a clever lie to save our lives," Virgo sighed as she crossed her arms and backed away from the doorway. "Try to keep up, please."

"Harriet, have a drink," the Doctor held out the decanter without taking his eyes off the Slitheen. "I think you're going to need it."

Harriet stared at him as though he were completely mad - in which he was - because she was clutching the briefcase from the table that held the Emergency Protocols, "You pass it to the lift first." The Doctor apologized quickly and handed it to Virgo, who just placed it on the side table.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter," Asquith declared as he, Margaret, and Green took a threatening step toward them, causing the two humans to back away from them, but the Time Lords stood their ground.

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose hissed at them.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street," the Doctor smiled distantly as he recalled some of the events he saw thanks to the TARDIS. "2,000 years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken." He laughed. "He was a nice man... 1796, this was the cabinet room. If the cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson."

The Doctor quickly lifted a small panel off the wall with the help of the sonic and pressed the big, red button that was inside of it. The red button didn't make the world explode, but it did make metal shutters appear in the windows and in the doorway, blocking the Slitheen and them.

"Installed in 1991," the Doctor said happily, lying about the end of the lesson. "Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

Rose looked around the room and came with just a tiny, tiny question that was kind of important, really, "And how do we get out?"

The Doctor still had his smile as he looked around the room, "Ah." Oh dear...

Outside of the room, Green turned to Margaret and Asquith, "They're safely contained. Now, cut off communications inside that room, then summon the family. It's time we finished with this insane planet for good."

SCENE BREAK

A reporter by the name of Andrew Marr was still outside for the news station just like every other reporter outside Downing Street, talking about how the people in charge of England were not helping at all and the visitors that were now coming in the building.

"And there's still no word from inside Downing Street, though we are getting even more arrivals," Andrew said into the camera, the guy manning the camera was trying to keep it straight from all the wind. "That's group Captain Tennant James of the RAF, though why he's been summoned, we've no idea. And that's Ewan McAllister, Deputy Secretary for the Scottish Parliament. And this is most unusual: I'm being told that is Sylvia Dillane, Chairman of the North Sea Boating Club. Quite what connects these people, we have no idea."

Well, would it be the fact that all three people were rather large people that were holding giant, baby-faced aliens inside their bodies and the real people were already dead with their organs out of them?

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor dragged Ganesh's dead body into the closet where Harriet had hid from the Slitheen and the proper, alive Asquith from what seemed like an eternity ago. This was also where the late Prime Minister was resting peacefully until they could get both men proper burials and have their last goodbyes with their families. They didn't deserve that fate...

"What was his name?" the Time Lord asked Harriet as he nearly finished gently laying Ganesh down.

"Who?" Harriet turned her head to look away from the Emergency Protocols and to the Doctor.

"This one," he made Ganesh's hands grasp one another and lay them on his chest. "The secretary or whatever he was called."

Harriet's frown turned into a sad one when she realized that little fact. She talked to him, she shared a laugh with him... but it never occurred to her to wonder what his name was. She was certain there was someone else who worked in Downing Street who knew Ganesh's name, but it didn't stop her from feeling upset about it. When they got out of here, she'd be sure to find someone who knew his name.

"I don't know," she slowly admitted. "I talked to him, I brought him a cup of coffee... I never asked his name."

"Sorry," the Doctor apologized to Ganesh sincerely before stepping out of the closet and closed the door, at least giving both dead bodies a bit of peace and quiet. "Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?"

"No," Rose shook her head in denial. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He was too thin and they're too big," Virgo explained. "They need to fit inside of big humans, and that's where the compression field comes in. It may not do so much for the weight, but it can do wonders for the height. That's why there's a lot of gas coming out of them, if you think about it." She sat on the table and rested her feet on the chairs and her hands on her thighs. Chairs are overrated these days, tables are much more fun!

"Wish I had a compression field," Rose muttered and played with her shirt a bit. "I could fit a size smaller..."

"Excuse me, people are dead!" Harriet snapped at her in horror. "This is _not_ the time for making jokes!"

"Sorry," Rose quickly apologized, but didn't really sound sincere, to Harriet's dismay. "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with them." Yay! It was official! The time travelling trio were now all friends!

"Well, that's a strange friendship," Harriet said and went back to dig into the files.

"So, Harriet Jones," Virgo spun around on the table after picking her feet up, then placed them on the table, one again not caring about being rude silently. "If you're not the Prime Minister, then what are you working as?"

"Lifelong backbencher, I'm afraid," she chuckled half-heartedly, "and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things?" Rose wondered. "Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?"

Everyone stared at her.

"You're a very violent young woman," Harriet commented the obvious.

"I'm serious! We could."

"Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes _do_ need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again," the Doctor spoke, his tone just screaming that he was on the verge of a brilliant idea that was going to put the Slitheens' plan to shame.

"What about the codes?"

"Anything," he shrugged absently. "All of it."

"Well," Harriet thought about it quickly with a frown, unsure of what the Time Lord wanted to hear, "the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever stopped them," Rose scoffed.

"Exactly, given our past record," the future Prime Minister nodded in agreement before holding her hands up in defense. "And I voted _against_ that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Oh, Harriet, everything you just said is important," Virgo smiled.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted," Harriet mused before realizing something. "Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."

"What do they want, though?" Rose questioned.

"Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion," the Doctor rambled on. "They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold?" Harriet supplied. "Oil? Water?"

"You're very good at this," the Doctor eyed her.

"Thank you," she smiled at the praise, something she hardly gets from anyone anymore.

Rose's phone suddenly rumbled in her back pocket and she reached to grab it to check if it was an email or text message, "Oh, that's me."

"But we're sealed off," Harriet pointed out with wide eyes. "How did you get a signal?"

"They zapped it," Rose gestured to both Time Lords, honestly unsure which one actually gave her the privilege to have a super phone. The Doctor started to do it, the Virgo finished it up... but it was her sonic screwdriver... but he was the one to give it to her... Oh, that's confusing. "Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help!" Harriet beamed with excitement. "You must have contacts!"

"Dead downstairs, yeah," the Doctor said bitterly, causing Harriet's grin to falter with sadness.

Rose looked at the text message on her phone with a frown and worried eyes, unable to believe what her boyfriend just sent her, "It's Mickey..."

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy," the Doctor rolled his eyes. Sometimes he just wanted to strangle the kid for no reason at all. He didn't really know why he was being so harsh to Mickey, but it's just... he could annoy him very easily.

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all," Rose gave him the phone to reveal that Mickey had sent her the picture he took of Strickland being electrocuted in Jackie's kitchen.

"Oh, Mickey," Virgo pursued her lips sadly.

A/N: I feel so embarrassed that I just realized this now: _I don't have a single disclaimer in this story_. When I first noticed this, I just started to laugh at myself at how much of an idiot I was being for forgetting something so simple as a disclaimer. Granted, it's obvious that I don't own Doctor Who, but I do feel like an idiot. Should I be feeling like an idiot? I don't know, but I think I was pretty clever with how I worded the disclaimer. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about this chapter other than the fact that I'm still proud of myself for getting to the double digits in the the follower category (for this story, not for myself; this is the only story I have, and that's just funny to me).


	14. World War Three: Raxacoricofallapatorius

"No, no, no, no, no, no," Mickey shook his head while on the phone with Rose, the girl becoming too concerned about them. Since Strickland knew where Jackie's flat was, the only place safe enough for the two of them would be to camp out at his flat for at least a day before they had to run... or the planet would explode before then. "Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking and wet and disgusting. And more to the point, _it wanted to kill us_!"

"I could've _died_!" Jackie added loudly from sitting on the couch and Mickey pointed at her even though Rose couldn't see it.

"Is she all right, though?" the girl asked him, wanting to get off the topic of death. "Don't put her on, just tell me."

Mickey wouldn't get the chance to tell her that Jackie was relatively fine (she _was_ fine because she had a breakdown earlier and he was forced to awkwardly hug her) because the Doctor snatched the phone from her.

"Is that Ricky?" he groaned. "Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's _Mickey_ , and why should I?" Mickey narrowed his eyes at the wall because he couldn't do it in person and the wall was the closest thing that would take his anger.

"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er... I need you," the Doctor grimaced at his own words. "Go to the UNIT website."

"Why do you need me?" Mickey continued to argue, not caring if the fate of the world rested in his hands. He was a younger sibling in his family, wasn't he? Always questioning the authority of others, complaining about things that didn't matter, and always looking up to someone older than him.

Virgo grabbed the phone from the Doctor so he could mingle with the speaker phone so that everyone could hear what Mickey was saying.

"Mister Mickey, please, for God's sake, help us," the Time Lady pleaded with him. "If you're not going to listen to the Doctor, then listen to me. The Earth is being 'invaded' by aliens and we don't know how much time is left before we're all done for, so I'd appreciate it if you could please just quit worrying about yourself and just do what I or the Doctor tell you to do because it's vital and important that you do so." She didn't hear Mickey reply, so she assumed that her words had gotten to him. "Okay?"

"It says password," his voice came through a moment later, causing her to smile. Virgo gave the Doctor back Rose's phone and he connected it to the speaker phone.

"Say that again," the Doctor told him.

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo. Two F's, one L."

Mickey typed 'Buffalo' in the password box and pressed enter, which allowed him access to a whole bunch of tabs to different boxes full of information. Jackie grew curious into what he was doing, so she grabbed a spare chair from the kitchen and sat down next to him to receive a lesson or two in science or astronomy, she really didn't know.

"So, what's that website?" she asked him and scooted closer to the screen, her eyes failing her.

"All the secret information known to mankind," Mickey gestured to the website in almost-enthusiasm. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

"Mickey, you were _born_ in the dark," the Doctor snarled at him, earning a little whack from Rose.

"Oh, leave him alone," Rose rolled her eyes, not in the mood for pesky insults.

"Thank you," Mickey said sarcastically with a sarcastic smile plastered on his face, his head tilted so he could lay the phone on his shoulder and use both hands on the keyboard. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time," the Doctor told him. Mickey handed Jackie the phone so he could focus on where to click and what to type in so that the website wouldn't think he was a hacker and could get whatever the information the Time Lords needed as soon as possible. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them," Harriet pointed out, trying to be helpful.

"Oh please, if you shoot a weather balloon up in the air, they'll gather round," Virgo scoffed. "It's pointless to crash into the middle of London to gather them into a single room."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert," Rose added to the table of information already known. "What would they do that for?"

"Oh, listen to her," Jackie muttered to Mickey, making her voice intentionally loud enough for her daughter to hear her. Rose was changing into something she would never imagine of, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. Rose was talking like danger wasn't a big deal and was actually trying to help out.

"At least I'm trying!" Rose moaned.

"Well, _I've_ got a question, if you don't mind," Jackie stood up from her chair to pace around the living room. "Since those people walked into our lives, I have been attacked _in the streets_. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappears off the face of the Earth."

"I told you what happened," Rose attempted to convince her otherwise, but Jackie would have none of it.

"I'm talking to _them_ ," her mother demanded. "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, and maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this: is my daughter safe?"

"I'm _fine_."

"Is she safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer?"

Rose stared at the the Time Lords who were staring back at her in deep thought. Rose _was_ relatively safe right now. The Slitheen were on the other side of the door and couldn't get past the metal shutters... but she hasn't been safe in the past and can't guarantee it in the future. She has been kidnapped twice and it's only been two adventures the trio had spent time together. They nearly died in Cardiff and caused Jackie to wait an entire year for her daughter to come home, wondering everyday if she was even alive.

Rose would never be safe in the presence of the Doctor and Virgo, and that is fact.

Mickey took back the phone and gave Jackie an apologetic look, "We're in."

The Doctor snapped himself out of the trance and got to work, "Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

He clicked on the icon and the screen turned into a giant map with an oscilloscope above the map with mumblings that sounded like an alien language being broadcasted on it.

"What is it?" Mickey squinted, trying to figure out what is was saying without knowing it was pointless to do so because he wouldn't be able to understand either way.

"The Slitheen's ship is transmitting a signal and the little blurby nonsense is that signal," Virgo explained quickly and quietly so that the Doctor could listen. She was never an expert at deciphering different languages or things like this; her department was science, alien cultures, and astronomy. Languages seemed pointless to her if the TARDIS could just translate it.

"Now hush, let me work out what it's saying," the Doctor ordered and closed his eyes to concentrate on translating the signal.

"He'll have to answer me one day," Jackie muttered under her breath, causing Mickey to shush her.

"It's some sort of message," the Time Lord concentrated, silently thanking Mickey the Idiot for hushing Jackie.

"What's it say?" Rose asked him.

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating."

The doorbell in Mickey's flat suddenly rang, startling both of them with a frown. He wasn't expecting anyone to come around here now, and certainly not at this hour! It was hopefully the neighbors or the nasty old man who lived on the road of the Powell Estate that was sitting on a garbage can when the TARDIS materialized after a year.

"Hush!" the Doctor whined as Mickey and Jackie turned their heads to the front door in fear and skepticism.

"That's not me," Mickey turned back to the computer and continued to type random letters to increase the volume or try to make the signal clearer. "Go and see who that is."

"It's _three o'clock in the morning_ ," Jackie eyed him as though he was mad.

"Well, go and tell them that."

The Tyler huffed and trudged to the front door like a teenage girl, only crabby because her daughter was in a life-threatening situation and she hasn't slept in probably 24 hours. It was understandable she would be feeling like this and she doesn't need a pesky neighbor on top of all of it.

"All right!" she shouted at whoever was outside as they were still knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. She opened the door and froze where she stood.

"Mrs Tyler," Strickland nodded for his greeting, an evil smile plastered on his face. Jackie would have none of it and quickly slammed the door and locked it and sprinted back to Mickey in panic.

"It's him!" she hissed/whispered to Mickey. "It's the thing! It's the Slipeen!"

"They've found us!" Mickey told the four people trapped in the cabinet room in case they couldn't hear Jackie due to how quietly she was speaking.

"Mickey, I _need_ that signal," the Doctor glared at the phone, positive that they could hold on for just a little longer for him to understand what the signal was saying.

"Forget the signal, it's not important right now!" Virgo glared at him and at his lack of caring for others. "Jackie, Mickey, get out of there now!"

Mickey nodded to himself and picked up his baseball bat that was camping out next to his desk and walked out into the hallway. Truth be told, he hasn't play baseball in quite a long time, but he could probably get a good swing into the face or stomach or... other areas. The baseball bat was from his highschool days on baseball team where the coach absolutely hated his guts and the best player on the team kept treating him like a kid just because he was a senior and Mickey was a sophomore. He still hasn't forgiven the senior to this day.

"Just get out!" he heard Rose screech over on the phone, her volume causing him to wince. "Get out!"

"We can't," he denied and stood under a small arch so he could check on the Slitheen's progress with the door and could run away when it was necessary. He peaked his head over the arch and saw that a strong, blue light was flashing just outside the door, indicating only one thing. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

"There's got to be a some way of stopping them!" Harriet shouted at the Time Lords or to the Doctor, but her eyes were darting to Virgo, so no one really knew who she was talking to. One thing's for certain: she was talking to the Doctor. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!"

"I'm trying!" the Doctor snapped at her.

"I'll take it on, Jackie," Mickey stepped out fully into the hallway with the bat ready to fight. "You just run, don't look back. Just run." The Slitheen was now fully naked and was smashing on the door with everything it had, so little pieces of wood were flying everywhere and could possibly poke someone in the eye and that would be agony, itself.

The splintering wood could be heard through the phone, so Rose stared at the Time Lords in heartache.

"That's my mother," she said softly, her tone full of worry that they were going to die and sadness that they didn't know how to help them.

The Doctor stared right back at the blonde, but his eyes were full of outright guilt, not so much in the sadness department. He hated it when this happened, the companion's family getting into a life-threatening situation that was his fault. One day, that was going to make a companion leave him and take care of them, and due to his level of selfishness, he couldn't have that, now could he?

"Do you know where they're from?" he asked Virgo, who looked surprised that that question was even asked in the first place.

"Why are you looking at me?" she laughed nervously and made everyone's hope drop to burning wood. "I don't know! If I did know, I would have said something."

"Right," the Doctor nodded with a wince, somehow he was expecting that because he didn't know either, "if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet? So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to 5,000 planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green," Rose shouted out first, desperate to save her mother and boyfriend.

"Yep, narrows it down," the Doctor nodded with concentration.

"Good sense of smell!"

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology," Harriet butted in, remembering that she heard something that a pig was in the spaceship.

"Narrows it down."

"Oh, wait!" Virgo jumped up and down. "The spaceship has a slipstream engine!"

"Narrows it down."

"It's getting in!" Mickey reported back to them on the phone, the Slitheen's face was now visible through the door and Jackie was looking even more horrified by the second.

"They hunt like it's a ritual," Rose said, now looking even more desperate than ever.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute," Harriet widened her eyes at her new discovery. "Did you notice? When they fart - if you'll pardon the word - it doesn't just smell like a fart - if you'll pardon the word. It's something else... What is it? It's more like... er..."

"Bad breath!" Rose supplied.

"That's it!"

"Calcium decay!" the Doctor cheered, that bit of information really narrowed it down to certain planets with that asset. "Now _that_ narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, Mum!" Rose reported to the duo with a small squeal in her voice.

"Too late!" Mickey denied with the door being nearly cut down by now.

"Calcium phosphate, organic calcium, living calcium, creatures made out of living calcium," Virgo listed off, excited thanks to the pressure. "Then there's the... hyphenated surname!"

"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That narrows it down to one planet!"

He and Virgo grabbed each other's with giant smiles and both shouted, "Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

Rose and Harriet exchanged glances with each other, not even bothering to ask what either of them had just said. Raxa... Raxaco... what?!

"Oh, yeah, great," Mickey rolled his eyes and backed away down the hallway with Jackie way ahead of him. "We could write 'em a letter!" He didn't have time to say anything more because the Slitheen finally broke down the door and screeched its hunting call.

"Get into the kitchen!" the Doctor told him quickly.

Mickey wasted no time in questioning his authority because that would be stupid to do so, so he grabbed Jackie's arm and tugged her with him into the kitchen. They slammed the door shut and barricaded it with chairs and the kitchen table. This Slitheen needs to work out because apparently it was having a difficult time breaking down this door, too.

"My God, it's going to rip us apart!" Jackie whimpered and used Mickey as a life support system by grabbing his arms and digging her nails into his skin, him not even noticing at it.

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field," the Doctor said. "Acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet beamed at the comparison.

"Just like Hannibal. Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey scoffed as he got the bat ready to fight once again. He wasn't about to look away from the door when the Slitheen could break it down at any minute. No, Jackie's life was pretty much in his hands.

"You don't know your own kitchen?" Virgo frowned and exchanged a glance with everyone. You... you pretty much live inside your kitchen because you need food to survive... so how could you not know where something was in the kitchen?

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf," Rose told him.

Jackie took Mickey's phone away from him so she could help and not cower anymore, "Oh, give it here. What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor told her in urgency.

Jackie nodded and ran over to the cupboards and found exactly what she needed. They may not be delicious and just made her feel bad about Mickey's diet, but that wasn't important right now. They contained vinegar and that was what she needed right now.

"Gherkins," she took out a jar and placed the gross food inside of it. "Yeah, pickled onions, pickled eggs..."

"And you kiss this man?" the Doctor asked Rose in disgust, who just shrugged in return.

Meanwhile, Jackie finished stirring all the ingredients in the jar just when the Slitheen finally broke down the door. She threw the contents at it without letting go of the jar and just when it was about to attack, it stopped and sniffed itself. It made one last fart then exploded with all its green organs all over the kitchen, including Jackie and Mickey. They blinked their eyes and shook their heads, relieved to be alive but... _gross_.

The four people in the cabinet room heard the Slitheen explode and they all sighed in relief. Rose slammed her hands on the table and panted, just... happy they're alive and they didn't strangle them or rip their bellies open.

"Hannibal?" she questioned Harriet after a few moments of gathering herself together.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar," the future Prime Minister explained as if it was common knowledge for someone her age.

"Oh," Rose laughed and grabbed a glass filled with whiskey that someone had filled up at some point. "Well, there you go." Everyone excluding Virgo all grabbed a glass and clinked them together in a toast.

"Don't know why you humans like whiskey so much," the Time Lady grimaced and crossed her arms. "It's horrid."

SCENE BREAK

Green was standing in the entrance to Downing Street with a look on his face to signal that he was mourning someone. He had felt this way ever since Strickland had exploded in vinegar and he had been stiff and depressed ever since. He had really liked Strickland and the two of them were great friends besides being related to each other, so for him to be killed by the pesky humans... this wouldn't go unpunished for certain.

Asquith came up behind him to report the dreaded news that Green already knew about, "He's dead. Sip Fel Fotch Passameer-Day-Slitheen is dead."

"I felt it," Green nodded in sadness, not staring at the fake general. "How could that happen?"

"Somebody must have got lucky," Asquith spat out in a bit of anger, just as upset about Sip than any of the Slitheen here.

"That's the _last_ piece of luck anyone on this rock will ever have," Green promised to not only Asquith but to himself, as well. He then stepped outside of Downing street and into the land of the news and reporters and camera people to make the broadcast he and Asquith have to give.

"Ladies and gentlemen, nations of the world, humankind," Green spoke like a proper Prime Minister despite being from Raxacoricofallapatorius. "The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause, but the news I bring you is grave indeed. The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace."

SCENE BREAK

Mickey and Jackie were in the living room with the TV on and watching Green make his speech to the whole word. When he saw this looked promising, Mickey said, "Listen to this." and brought the phone over to the TV so the people in the cabinet room could hear what Green had to say.

" _Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within 45 seconds_ ," Green continued.

"What?" the Doctor and Virgo both blurted out at the same time.

" _Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction... unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Gives us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on... it is my solemn duty to inform you... planet Earth is at war._ "

"He's making it up," the Doctor shook his head in disbelief. "There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet questioned him.

"Don't see why not," Virgo shrugged before anyone could answer her. "Green's acting the Prime Minister and everyone listens to the Prime Minister because everyone's too scared to understand what's happening."

" _That's_ why the Slitheen went for spectacle," the Doctor realized. "They want the whole word panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defence code...," Rose widened her eyes.

"... and the Slitheen go nuclear," the Doctor finished her sentence.

"But why?" Harriet wondered aloud, the question that had been placed on the table the entire time that no one could possibly answer... until now.

"Let's just ask them," Virgo shrugged and waltzed over to the button to lift the metal shutter off the door, where Margaret was back in her skin suit and two other Slitheen were right behind her.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there," the Doctor stepped next to Virgo for a chat with Margaret. "You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back, World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship," Margaret shrugged smugly with her evil grin that all villains possess. "Not crashed, just _parked_. Only two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place," Harriet glared at her in outrage. "What for?!"

"A business is a business, and all businesses need profits," Virgo explained tensely. "This whole invasion is just one huge way of getting money, and that's what the signal was for, wasn't it? It was an advert beaming out into space."

"The sale of the century," Margaret concluded, not worried that they figured out what this whole invasion was about. "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo fuel. There's recession out there. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"And leave five billion people dead?" Virgo raised her eyebrows. her ears puffing out steam.

"Bargain," Margaret laughed cruelly.

"Five billion people dead just for a stupid business and you call that a bargain?!" Virgo clenched her fists. "Why don't you come on in here and I can show you what my version of bargain is?" She stepped forward in an attempt to pull Margaret into the cabinet room, but the Doctor stopped her by holding her shoulders and passed her to Harriet and Rose so he could properly tell Margaret to leave Earth.

"I give you a choice," he said in a serious tone. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

All of the Slitheen burst out laughing in disbelief, unable to think that two aliens, an old woman, and a teenager would be a big enough force to stop them from blowing up the Earth.

"What, you?" Margaret was the first to sober up. "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes, me," the Doctor smashed his finger on the button to close the shutters in front of Margaret's laughing face, but as the shutters were nearly closed, she immediately stopped laughing and her face replaced the amusement to the worry.

A/N: Have you ever written something a few years ago and when you finally dig it up again you realize how good this sounds but you don't want to continue it because you're afraid you might ruin it? Believe it or not, this is a total shocker, but I recently went through my little folder in Docs that I labeled "Failed Doctor Who Fics" and in it is just a bunch of little fanfictions I wrote but never finished it because they sound like a stupid idea, and I found a particular one that I wrote out about two years ago. It's pretty much about a girl in a coma and lives in the Doctor Who universe and when she eventually wakes up... I don't know. The Doctor's there? Well, when I read it, it sounded a lot better than what I'm telling you right now. I want to continue it but... I really don't want to ruin the beauty of it. Am I the only like that? Maybe one day I'll continue it and maybe even upload it to as a one-shot 'cause I haven't done one of those yet.

Anyway, I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than a normal chapter (only 13 pages when it's usually a bit more than that). There should not be any more shorter chapters for the remainder of this story.

Thank you for all the follows and favs and reviews! From the bottom of my heart and to the top, thank you! :D

P.S: Should I start to reply to your reviews because I have seen a lot of fanfiction authors do this and I kind of want to do this, too, but I don't really want to put someone's pin name on here if they don't want me to 'cause I don't like getting yelled at :/ If you want me to reply to you, then tell me because I will be more than happy to have a little chat with you 3


	15. World War Three: Not Ten Seconds

The sun has finally risen in the horizon after a long night of fighting aliens that were hiding out as the Prime Minister and other high ranks in the government and military all across the British Isles. In other words, it was a very rough night of battles, running, and exploding organs after finding out the aliens were from some planet with a ridiculously long name. By long, it means it has _eleven_ syllables. That's just three syllables away from supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

On the Westminster Bridge, Tom Hitchinson was back on the scene to report the news for whatever news channel is was representing out of the dozens of news stations around the globe. Let's see what he has to say about the crisis.

"Yesterday saw the start of a brave new world," he reported in front of a giant camera. "Today might see it end. The streets are deserted. Everyone's home, just waiting, as the future is decided in New York."

SCENE BREAK

For the United States of America, the morning part couldn't be said the same because the moon was still shining through the clouds, but just because it was night didn't mean that everyone was tired. No, everyone was wide awake because they were frightened of the aliens just as much as the British were. Some of them weren't exactly afraid, more like... well... _intrigued_ would be a good word to describe the extra-terrestrial conspiracy nerds.

"It's midnight here in New York," the woman in the news station reported calmly. "The United Nations has gathered. England has provided them with absolute proof that the massive weapons of destruction _do_ exist. The Security Council will be making a resolution in a matter of minutes, and once the codes are released, humanity's first interplanetary war begins."

SCENE BREAK

Green was walking through the lobby with Margaret, Asquith, and some military people including Price towards the Prime Minister's office to await for the call for the defence codes. Green was never going to tell the humans that he was simply _waiting_ for them, but was merely... hoping, there we go.

"Sergeant, we'll take the call in the Prime Minister's office," he told Price when he arrived at the doors. "Maintain your positions. Good luck." He patted Price's shoulders before stepping inside the office with Asquith and Margaret and slammed the door before the sergeant could object.

Inside, the Slitheen acting like authoritative figures disappeared like a ghost and was replaced with excitement and squealing. Green ran over to the big chair while Margaret looked amazed at the phone on the desk.

"Oh, look at that," she breathed as she stood behind Green and next to Asquith. "The telephone is actually _red_."

Green sat down in the chair with a fart and a giant smile plastered across his face, "How long til they phone?"

"Counting down," Asquith chuckled softly and everyone stared at the phone like it was a basket full of chocolates and they were all tiny, human children.

SCENE BREAK

Jackie and Mickey were back in his room at the computer. Well, Mickey was at the computer and Jackie was pacing around the room while talking with the four people in the cabinet room (three people since she hasn't really heard Harriet's voice just yet).

"All right, Doctor, Virgo, I'm not saying I trust any of you, but there must be something you can do," Jackie grumbled into the phone.

That caused Virgo to wince, now realizing she had completely lost Jackie's trust thanks to Rose being in danger. Well, the mother never really should have trusted the Time Lady in the first place and was right to not like her and the Doctor anymore.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," Harriet suggested in hopes that she could make the time being useful. It wasn't too bad an idea, but the problem was when the Slitheen came into contact with vinegar, they _exploded_ and if one Slitheen spreading its organs in a kitchen was bad enough, to do it to all of them... it'd probably turn the atmosphere into a poison instead of a disgusting mess.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose called out to her boyfriend who was currently on the phone connected through the house.

"There's loads of emergency numbers," he shook his head in defeat after Jackie passed him the phone and put the telephone back into its little resting place on the desk. "They're all on voicemail."

"Voicemail dooms us all," Harriet chuckled darkly at the thought of the world ending thanks to voicemail.

"If we could just get out of here...," Rose slumped in a chair while pursuing her lips.

"There's a way out," the Doctor's voice caused everyone (even on the phone) to widen their eyes and face him.

"What?" Rose stared at him like he was an impossible puzzle and she had to piece him together in a little under three minutes. So _now_ he says something?! They could have gotten out ages ago and help Jackie and Mickey out from Strickland instead of listing off what they knew about the Slitheen. Well, finding out where they were from was useful but that was it. That was the only positive side in staying the cabinet room.

"There's always been a way out," the Doctor sighed as he could feel a thousand bricks fall on his chest and he had to lift them off with his bare hands and no help.

"No, no, no, no, we're not going there just yet," Virgo shook her head quickly while looking a bit terrified. "We can just stay in here for a little bit longer... right?" She laughed nervously and it slowly faded when she saw the apologetic look on the Doctor's face.

"Why don't we use it?" Rose asked them, looking between the two of them because she was unsure why Virgo looked like her life was ending. The way out... couldn't be that bad, could it? They could just open the metal shutters and just run around the table and out the door and out into the cruel, cruel Earth. Simple!

The Doctor leaned into the phone on the table to make sure Jackie could hear his words, "Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe."

" _Don't you dare_ ," Jackie immediately objected without even knowing they had to fire a missile into the heart of Downing Street, she didn't care. Whenever something was unsafe, it usually meant that death could be vital and she was not about to be a widow _and_ a mother without a child. "Whatever it is, _don't you dare_."

"That's the thing," the Doctor argued with her. "If 'I don't dare,' then everyone dies."

"Do it," Rose said with a voice that sounded tiny but made a big impact to everyone, on the phone or not. Everyone stared at her as though she were mad. She was willing to face danger just so that they could stop the Slitheen and save the world from more intergalactic businesses. Is a 19-year old girl supposed to behave this way?

"You're just going to let him?" Virgo gaped at her. "Without even knowing that this way of getting out of here could very well kill you, and you'd let him?" Rose was acting like she had been in the army and would face anything that was life-threatening or not, and that was _way_ too mature of her age to say. A normal teenager that was close to being a young adult would be fussing about and stopping them from killing her.

"Yeah," the said girl shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal when it was a very big deal.

"Please, please," Jackie begged with tears in her eyes over the phone. "She's my _daughter_. She's just a kid!"

"Do you think I don't know that?" the Doctor glared at the phone. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then what're you waiting for?" Rose questioned him. The Time Lord locked eyes with the Time Lady.

"I could save the world but lose you," he said with passion coming from the bottom of his hearts (count those, by the way) to Virgo. He was concerned with the way how she'd been acting and he didn't know if it was for protection over the humans in the room (and hopefully a little bit of him would be very nice) or if she really didn't want to get hurt so bad that she would regenerate. Hey, it happens. Some incarnations of Time Lords get so attached to themselves that they would refuse to change into another version. Maybe he should try that in the future, see how it would work out for him. It wouldn't be a positive outcome, but he was curious nonetheless.

"No," Virgo shook her head tearfully. She just didn't want to kill her baby and she didn't know how powerful of a missile would really affect it. She knew she should probably say something right now... but she was a coward. She couldn't just tell him she was pregnant with some Time Lord's child and that it would have to grow up without a proper father; that was a problem to deal at another time. She knew the missile would work... but it could very well be the cost of a life that wouldn't get the chance to breathe some oxygen.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor," Harriet stepped forward proudly and authoritative-like. "It's mine."

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie rudely asked the future Prime Minister with anger and sadness.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," the said woman spoke with confidence. "The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people, for the people, and behalf on the people, I command you. Do it."

Virgo crashed into a chair and put her forehead on her hands, elbows on the table. If they were going to launch the missile, then fine. If she wasn't happy about it, then that was her problem. If they didn't do this, if they didn't do it _now_ , then the whole world would pay just because an alien didn't want to murder her kid. What if she was overreacting? What if the missile wouldn't do any damage to the baby?

"How do we get out?" Rose asked the Doctor before glancing in concern in the Time Lady.

"We don't," he shook his head. "We stay here." He ran over to the red briefcase and grabbed the Emergency Protocols from inside it.

SCENE BREAK

In the American news station, the reporter was listening in on what the Council somewhere in New York was discussing and voting for. Just for the sake of avoiding a silent broadcast, she told her viewers, "The Council is voting. The results should be known any second now."

SCENE BREAK

"Use the buffalo password," the Doctor informed Mickey through the phone while the human was at the computer once more and was on some website. "It overrides everything."

"What're you doing?" Jackie asked Mickey while standing on her feet and not in her chair that had somehow made its way on the floor. Probably she or Mr. Mickey probably tripped over it or something.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy," Mickey explained briefly as he hit enter after writing the password in the little box. "We're in. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to select a missile," the Doctor said.

"We can't go nuclear; we don't have the defence codes."

"We don't need it," the Doctor waved him off. "All we need's an ordinary missile." Mickey nodded to himself and clicked on the missile tab and gave him a whole list of them that they could use. To an evil human that was trying to take over the world for stupid reasons, Hitler for example, then this would be a giant ice cream truck for them. "What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A," Mickey read off the name of the missile. Why was it always random numbers and letters? How could anyone possibly remember what each missile did which kind of damage like that? Why couldn't they name it simple like Burger or Tall Man or Wall-E?

"That's the one," the Doctor approved, apparently his alien brain was big enough to remember that missile. "Select." Mickey clicked on the missile and the next page displayed the picture of the missile and the big, red button that said, 'Fire.'

"I could stop you," Jackie's voice caused him to turn around and see that she was on the verge of a heartbreak and was done with her tears. She looked emotionless.

"Do it, then," he dared her while he already knew what she was going to do. They continued to stare at each other with neither of them flinching which was hard to do for some people.

"You ready for this?" the Doctor asked him while he was unaware of what Jackie threatened to do.

"Yeah," Mickey confirmed and turned his head back to the screen to do something a young man like himself would never want to do in a million years. It would usually be an older man or woman that would hit the 'Fire' button.

"Mickey the Idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

He took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut so he would have an easier time erasing this moment out from his mind. With the mouse, he clicked on 'Fire' and somewhere under the sea, a missile that was three times the size of a toy rocket launch up into the air and made its way over to Downing Street. If Mickey wanted to change his mind, it was far too late now.

"Oh, my God," Jackie covered her mouth in horror and watched the missile's progress on the computer.

"How solid are these?" Harriet wondered as she pressed her body against the walls and felt how strong they were.

"They're glass against a giant missile," Virgo mumbled but somehow everyone could still hear her. "The walls were built for smaller attacks, not a this. It's hopeless."

"All right, now _I'm_ making the decision," Rose decided after a bit of thinking and observing the room. "I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out." She ran over to the cupboard that Harriet hid in a while ago. "It's like what they say about earthquakes; you can survive them by standing under a door frame. Now, this cupboard's small, so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Harriet ran over to help Rose clear some... things out of the way while the Doctor decided to stick to Virgo's side and gave her a little hug or cuddle, whichever is the closest.

SCENE BREAK

"The vote is in," the American reporter sat up straighter in her seat with one hand on her earpiece talking device thing. "The Council says..." She faced directly to the camera, amazement in her eyes, "yes. They _are_ releasing the codes."

SCENE BREAK

"It's on the radar," Mickey informed everyone in the cabinet room and Jackie when he switched the screen from a map's view of the missile to the radar where a little blinking light was heading toward the center dot on the screen. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting," the Doctor ordered him as Rose and Harriet were finishing up with clearing out space for the closet.

"I'm doing it now," Mickey replied after multiple clicks with the mouse to things that Jackie couldn't and wouldn't bother in the future to understand.

"Good boy."

"Five five six neutralised."

That was the last time Mickey would say something to any of them because the Doctor unplugged the phone from the speaker, leaving no communication to anyone whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the missile had hit land and was heading over Seven Sisters, getting closer and closer within seconds.

SCENE BREAK

In some office, Officer Price was called over to one of the security guards of Downing Street for some reason he couldn't comprehend or understand. A missile heading toward Downing Street? Please! That hasn't happened in the past, it's not happening now, and it will never happen in the future. The missile is something that somebody would make up to make the whole street panic.

"What do you mean, incoming?" Price jogged over to a man who pointed at a radar that held the missile's progress to its target. That was enough proof for Price to go crazy with sounding the alarm.

He ran out of the office and into the entrance hall where he elbowed the fire alarm, much like Rose did in that Italian place before she became a proper companion aboard the good ship TARDIS.

"Everybody out now!" he yelled at the top of his lungs so that even a deaf person could hear him from a million miles away. He sprinted up the stairs to alarm the people up there in case they hadn't heard him shout, which would rather be impossible to do.

He eventually found himself in the Prime Minister's office, "Sir, there's a missile!" He was about to say, 'Get out of here now!' but stopped in his tracks when he saw... well, er... an entire room filled with all the Slitheen family members. Since his mind was so small, he didn't bother to make sense of what he was seeing, so he just apologized like a gentleman. "Sorry." He slammed the door shut absently and stood there for a minute like he had something important he needed to do... oh, yeah! The missile!

The Slitheen shouted bloody murder over each other as they were all scrambling to get into their body suits so they could run outside and still be suspected as human. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't do it in time because getting into a body suit took time and effort.

SCENE BREAK

In the cabinet room, Harriet and Rose had finished cleaning up the closet and they all sat in the corner (Virgo was directly in the corner, everyone else just took a side next to her). This was it, the moment of truth. They either die in fires and explosions (positive side, they go out with a bang) or they survive and live to tell the tale of what really happened for the past two days (negative side: they go out with a whimper in the end).

"Here we go," Harriet grabbed the Doctor's hand (it was Harriet, Virgo, the Doctor, and Rose from left to right) and added a squeeze to it. "Nice knowing you all. Hannibal!"

While everyone was squeezing each other's hands, Virgo was merely holding them with a blank, emotionless face without a care in the world. She hadn't spoken in awhile, come to think of it, and the Doctor was certainly growing worried about her. She was never like this. She was always ready to protect the Earth from alien invasions and save poor souls along the way. She _was_ saving the planet currently... but she wasn't excited. Once again, he jumped to the regeneration conclusion because there couldn't be another answer to it. She was a bit like this in Cardiff, but she was more frantic than emotionless.

The missile finally hit Downing Street and chaos erupted _everywhere_. The closet in what was once the cabinet room tossed and turned on its side, on the roof, every side imaginable while the walls outside were collapsing to the ground in utter destruction.

Once the closet ceased its fussing about, everyone slowly opened their eyes like they were newborn babies that were opening their eyes for the first time. However, not everyone opened their eyes because Virgo still had her eyes closed and there was more. Her whole body was shaking in fear and she refused to let go of Harriet's and the Doctor's hands.

"Virgo," the Doctor managed to rip his hand out of Virgo's and placed his on her shoulders. She still shook with her eyes closed, which either meant she didn't hear him or she just refused to believe they were all alive. "Virgo, open your eyes for me." She shook her head, which meant that she _could_ hear him but she didn't want to. "We're alive, we made it. We're safe and sound. It's all right."

Harriet and Rose managed to lift the steel door (the wood had burnt off and it was covering a metal structure) open that allowed light into the metal box. Virgo instantly stopped shaking once she felt the sunlight on her skin and slowly opened one eye just to clarify that they were all actually alive.

When she saw where she was, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and pulled the Doctor into a hug. This was no ordinary hug; it was their _first_ hug they shared together. Oh, that's cute. The Doctor didn't mind the hug one bit, in fact, he actually pulled her closer into his chest and the two of them just rocked each other back and forth.

"Is she all right?" Harriet whispered to Rose, not wanting to ruin the cute moment between the Time Lords.

"She'll be fine," Rose replied in the same volume as the future Prime Minister. "She just needs a quick breather." A soft smile then formed on her face when she saw how happy Virgo had quickly become suddenly.

The Time Lords pulled apart and faced each other; Virgo tried to hide her blush as best as she possibly could while the Doctor just gave her a small smile. He reached behind himself and grabbed Virgo's sunhat that had flown off her head while the closet had tossed and turned and placed it on her head. She laughed in relief and stood up with the hold of his hand and stepped outside the closet.

"Made in Britain," Harriet sighed proudly at the strong closet and patted her hand on the metal... which was a mistake because it was _burning hot_ , but she didn't let her wince show.

"Oh, my God," Officer Price scurried over to them once he saw there were four whole people that didn't get the memo that a missile was heading to Downing Street. Well, perhaps they did because they did the smart thing in hiding inside a strong closest. "Are you all right?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," Harriet flashed her card at him, somehow she still kept up the professional act and the card was still in her pocket apparently. "I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am," Price nodded his head in obedience and ran over to the reporters that were crowding the roads for interviews from certain authoritative figures.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," Harriet stared after Price. "Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Why don't you give it a shot, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North?" Virgo nudged her arm on the future Prime Minister's arm. "You never know if you'll win or not if you don't try."

"Me?" Harriet nearly scoffed at the idea of _anyone_ voting for her. "I'm only a backbencher."

"I'd vote for you," Rose hinted at the possible future with a secret smile.

"Now, don't be silly," Harriet waved them off. "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help." She was about to run over to the reporters, but Virgo said something that she would never quite forget.

"Harriet Jones!" the Time Lady's voice halted her tracks. "I just wanted to say... thank you very much." She beamed at her and Harriet returned the smile.

"Suppose I should be thanking you, all of you," Harriet smiled and nodded, then hurried over to the news people. "Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!"

"Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister," Virgo stared proudly after her with a passionate smile, showing her teeth. "Elected for three successive terms; the architect of Britain's Golden Age."

"The crisis has passed!" the future Prime Minister's distant voice shouted after the reporters as the Time Lords and Rose turned around on the spot and made their way over to the Powell Estate and the TARDIS. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say to you all here today! Mankind stands tall, proud, and undefeated. God bless the human race..."

SCENE BREAK

Her speech was carried on over to the TVs all across the world, and that included the one in the Tylers' flat.

" _Mankind stands tall, proud..._ "

Jackie and Rose were sitting in the living room after their little reunion with hugs and kisses on the forehead and cheeks with Mickey and the Time Lords nowhere in sight. Mickey had given Rose a giant hug but not one kiss upon her lips which was a bit unsettling for her and the Time Lords honestly wanted her to spend some time with Jackie before heading back to the TARDIS.

"Harriet Jones, who does she think she is?" Jackie glared at the TV with utter disgust. "Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there." She leaned in toward the television, as if the reporters would be able to hear her. "My daughter saved the world!"

Rose laughed softly at her mother's praise, realizing that that was the first time in quite a long time that Jackie ever said she did great at something important. The last time she said something of the sort was when she told her about her and Mickey being together. Jackie had told her she had great taste because not only was Mickey cute, but he was also quite the romantic guy.

"I think Virgo and the Doctor helped a bit," Rose commented. In reality, Virgo didn't really do much besides help save Rose's and Harriet Jones's life and get answers out from the Slitheen. The Doctor was the one who suggested the missile and guided Mickey through the different websites by typing 'Buffalo' over and over again; on that thought, even Mickey had a hand in saving the world. Jackie was the only person out of the six of them who didn't do anything at all besides scream... well, no, actually. She did get the vinegar stuff and threw at the attacking Slitheen. Okay, everyone saved the world today.

"All right then, them too," Jackie agreed with a sigh. "You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not the way they do things," her daughter shook her head absently in though. "No fuss. They just move on. They're not that bad if you gave them a chance."

"They're good in a crisis, I'll give them that."

"Oh, _now_ the world has changed," Rose said sarcastically but a bit in shock. "You're saying _nice_ things about them."

"Well, I reckon I've got no choice," Jackie shrugged. "There's no getting rid of them since you're all so close."

Rose wasn't going to deny that they weren't all good friends at this point, but she did want to say something to Jackie that had been bugging her terribly since yesterday. Wonder what that could be...

"D'you remember yesterday...," she began, unsure of how to bring this up without Jackie yelling at her for eavesdropping; she didn't want her to take it the wrong way, "when, er... you and Virgo were... talking?"

Instead of angry flares in her eyes, Jackie simply smiled softly, "You heard us." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah. It wasn't on purpose or anything, I just thought that you were yelling at her or something like that-"

"Rose, it's all right," Jackie said distantly. "She needs to tell the Doctor soon and she'll probably won't listen to me, but she might listen to you. Talk to her when you get the chance for me, okay?"

"I'll try," Rose shrugged uncomfortably. "Don't know how, but I'll take a shot at it."

"What do they eat?" Jackie suddenly asked the question to change the subject. Well, not entirely but it was so that the Time Lords could come around and they could all have a nice, tasty lunch and just talk about the travelling.

"How do you mean?" Rose turned her head over to her with a raised eyebrow.

"I was going to do shepherd's pie," her mother suggested casually. "All of us. A proper sit down, 'cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and them and that life you lead. Only... I don't know, they're aliens. For all I know, they eat grass and safety pins and things."

"They'll have shepherd's pie," Rose reassured her but still skeptical that Jackie would actually do that. "You're going to cook for them?"

"What's wrong with that?" Jackie raised an eyebrow at her now.

"They've finally met their match," her daughter laughed at her with the shake of her head and returned to watch the news.

"You're not too old for a slap, you know," Jackie rolled her eyes at her and stood up. "You can go and visit your gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French. I told her you were in France. I said you were au-pairing." She went into the kitchen without knowing her words didn't register through her daughter's brain.

Rose's phone suddenly rang in her pocket, so she took it out and read the caller's name: TARDIS. Apparently the Doctor and Virgo have a telephone installed in the box.

"Hello?" she answered the phone, unsure who was going to be talking to her; the Doctor, Virgo, or was it on speaker and they were both talking to her?

"Right, we'll be a couple of hours, then we can go," the Doctor was the one answering the phone, and since there was no 'hello,' she could only assume that Virgo wasn't with him.

"You've got a phone?" the companion nearly scoffed at the idea of the Doctor answering calls from people. What, was the Prime Minister going to call him from 50,000 light years away just to ask for help from an alien invasion? That wasn't a bad idea, actually.

"You think I travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone?" the Time Lord countered. "Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

"Er," Rose looked behind herself and saw that Jackie already started to make the pie she promised to bake, "my mother's cooking."

"Good, put her on a slow heat and let her simmer," the Doctor joked, taking her sentence in a literal way.

"She's cooking tea," Rose didn't laugh, but she did smile at his joke. "For all four of us."

"I don't do that."

"She wants to get to know the both of you."

"Tough! I've got better things to do."

"It's just tea," Rose rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. What was his problem? If Virgo was there, she could convince him to take the opportunity for Jackie's invitation for a lunch date. It did sound fun with some boring parts in between and perhaps some arguing, but at least they could all come to an agreement on something.

"Not to me, it isn't," the Doctor argued back in determination.

" _She's my mother_ ," she countered.

"Well, she's not mine!"

"That's not fair!"

"Well, you can stay there if you want...," the Doctor offered, causing a bit of silence on both ends. After a few moments of the awkwardness, he continued, "but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the TARDIS right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up anywhere. Your choice." He then hung up on her.

Now that was just mean, talking about something impressive and amazing to convince her to abandon her mother and Mickey. Well, it worked nonetheless.

SCENE BREAK

Jackie walked over to Rose's bedroom from the hallway and stood outside her door, "Rose, I was thinking. I've got that bottle of Amaretto from New Year's Eve. Does he drink? Don't think we should risk it on Virgo, but we might as well let the Doctor have some fun." She opened the door when she didn't get a response from Rose.

Jackie's blank face quickly turned into a sad frown when she saw Rose was packing up her rucksack from her camping days with Shareen and Mickey, and that only meant one thing: she was going to leave her.

"I was wondering whether he drinks or not..." Jackie muttered and Rose turned her head to her but still continued to pack.

"Yeah, he does," Rose nodded and turned her head back to the rucksack, not wanting to face Jackie's devastated expression.

"Don't go, sweetheart," Jackie's voice made her freeze. "Please don't go." Rose turned back to her mother and simply stared at her in awkward silence in the sad atmosphere.

SCENE BREAK

Outside, Mickey was sitting on a garbage can and reading the newspaper in amusement and anger while a little boy was wiping off the graffiti off the TARDIS, which was back in its spot where it appeared the first time. The Doctor's head popped out from the doors and glanced at the kid.

"Good lad," the Time Lord nodded in approval when he saw that the graffiti was now gone. "Graffiti that again and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

The boy didn't argue with him and grabbed his bucket and sponge and ran off to some place, most likely home or his friend's house. The Doctor fully stepped out of the TARDIS and Virgo was not far behind him, the both of them looking very refreshed after riding that shock wave for a thousand or million miles.

"What're you reading, Mister Mickey?" Virgo walked over to the said man when she saw he was reading something in his lap. "Newspaper?"

Mickey merely chuckled darkly, "I just went down the shop, and I was thinking, 'you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public.' And here it is." He held up the newspaper article and the headline said 'Alien Hoax.' "How could they do that? They saw it!"

"They're just not ready," the Doctor shook his head at not just Mickey but at the humans in general. "You're happy to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring you in the face? Nope, can't see it. There's a scientific explanation for that: you're thick."

"We're just idiots," Mickey muttered with the roll of his eyes, expecting the Doctor to agree with him fully on that and maybe even give him another insult while he was at it.

"I wouldn't say you're idiots, I would say that you all have a lot more to learn about the universe," Virgo disagreed before the Doctor could open his mouth. "You may not learn everything right away, but you're getting there, slowly. Step by step. With all these brilliant scientists and minds like yours, Mickey, you'll get there in no time at all."

"Yeah?" Mickey slowly smiled at the thought of being a brilliant scientist.

"Positive," Virgo promised. Since Mickey now knew about time travel, he had to believe her, now didn't he?

"Present for you, Mickey," the Doctor took something out of his jacket - a cd - and handed it over to him. "That's a virus. Put it online. It'll destroy every mention of me. I'll cease to exist."

"What do you want to do that for?" the human frowned at him. Didn't the Doctor want the credit and thank you? He wanted it, too, but Virgo strictly told him to not even mention to anyone that he saved the world, just to keep quiet. He had objected to it, but agreed nonetheless. Wasn't not speaking about it enough?

"Because you're right, I _am_ dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

"What about you?" Mickey turned to Virgo in confusion. "Don't you also need whatever this is?"

"Mickey, use your brain," Virgo rolled her eyes. What did she _just_ say about humans? "You have been stalking me and the Doctor for an entire year and could only find tiny traces of the Doctor. Do you honestly think I'll need a disk?"

"Suppose not," Mickey blinked at the little realization. "But how could you say you're dangerous and then take her with you?" He nodded his head toward Rose and Jackie, who were making their way over to the trio while arguing a bit with each other.

"You could look after her," the Doctor hinted with a hopeful smile. "Come with us."

"I can't," Mickey shook his head much to the Time Lords' disappointment. "This life of yours, it's too much. I couldn't do it." He turned his head and saw that the Tylers were almost upon them. "Don't tell her I said that."

The Doctor winked with a tiny thumbs up when Jackie and Rose finally made it over to them.

"I'll get a proper job," Jackie pleaded with her daughter to stay home when it should really be the opposite, the daughter should be pleading with the mother to go travelling with the Time Lords in the TARDIS. Good parenting skills, Jackie. "I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will!"

"I'm not leaving because of you," Rose promised her as she adjusted her rucksack. "I'm travelling, that's all, and then I'll come back."

"But it's not safe!"

"Mum, if you saw it out there, you'd never stay home."

"Got enough stuff?" the Doctor eyed the rucksack uneasily with actual concern that she packed an entire human body in there.

"Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment," Rose smirked and threw him her rucksack. "Now I'm signing up. You and Virgo are stuck with me!" She laughed evilly in a mocking manner and the Doctor rolled his eyes at her. Rose turned to Mickey. "Come with us. There's plenty of room."

"No chance," the Doctor quickly said, gladly keeping Mickey's little promise. "He's, er... a liability. I'm not having him on board."

"We'd be dead without him!"

"Whatever the Doctor decides, that's the way it is," Virgo shrugged in a bit of pity for the teenager. "If he says no, then Mickey can't come."

Rose sighed and glared at both Time Lords, then kissed Mickey on the lips, "Sorry." Well, that felt a lot better. Finally, a kiss from good ol' Mickey after a few days without him and an entire year without her.

"Good luck, yeah," Mickey blinked again, completely forgetting what a kiss on the lips felt like after so long.

"You still can't promise me," Jackie suddenly spoke and it was directed at the Time Lords. "What if something happens to both of you and she's left all alone, standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

"Mum, you're forgetting," Rose put her hands on Jackie's shoulders and squeezed them in reassurance. "It's a time machine. I could go travelling around suns and planets all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, then seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds, so stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?"

She pulled Jackie into a big hug and then followed the Time Lords into the TARDIS. Mickey waved one last time at her before the big, blue box dematerialized immediately after everyone was inside, and that's when they both started to count ten seconds.

 _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... ten._

Jackie glanced down at her watch... and ten seconds had passed with no sign of the box materializing in front of them. Rose had broken her promise.

"Ten seconds," she muttered sadly and headed back to her flat while Mickey carried on reading how the journalists decided that the whole alien phenomenon was a giant hoax.

SCENE BREAK

In the TARDIS corridors, Rose stood before Virgo's bedroom door in another attempt to talk to her about the baby... but like last time, she couldn't bring her raised fist to knock on the door and just blurt it out like nobody's business. She was scared because of two reasons: one, she didn't want Virgo to take it the wrong way and get kicked out of the TARDIS (in case they have a giant argument over it), and two, how was she supposed to bring it up? Sure, with Jackie it was a bit easier, but with the actual pregnant alien? It was harder than it looked and would be even more awkward.

Rose lowered her fist down by her side with an angry sigh at herself and walked to some room that was close by, perhaps the library or swimming pool. Yeah, the swimming pool would do just nicely, and maybe even a quick dip in the hot tub.

Not ten seconds later, Virgo opened her door and stepped outside, on her way to the console room where the Doctor was tinkering around with the wires. She was going to talk to him about him overhearing Jackie's and her conversation at the Tyler flat. It _was_ him, wasn't it? She had seen that the door to Jackie's bedroom was open a crack when she remembered that Jackie had closed it all the way, and no one was as stealth as the Doctor, right? And if he denied it, then she'll just have to assume that some guest at Jackie's alien party had rudely eavesdropped on them.

She entered the console room to find that the Doctor was in a hole in the grating floor with the sonic in one hand and a poor wire in the other.

"Hey... Doctor?" Virgo jumped onto the captain's chair that was in front of the Doctor's working hole. "D'you remember at Jackie's when she and I were... well, having a little talk?"

The Doctor frowned and looked up at her, "You talked to Jackie? I thought you were just playing with that monster child that stole the remote away from me."

Virgo laughed at him, "No, Jackie pulled me into her room and we just started to chat from there. And it's okay, I'm not mad at you for eavesdropping."

"I wasn't eavesdropping, I was busy with some dead pig."

"Are you sure?" she slowly frowned, not expecting that. She was honestly hoping that it really was the Doctor that overheard her because then everything would work out so smoothly. They could talk about it right here and now without her confessing straight out to him.

"I'm very sure," the Doctor promised her and stood up straight to stare at her. "What makes you think someone was eavesdropping on you two?"

"Oh, just... er, just a feeling," Virgo waved him off, trying to hide her embarrassment at the misinterpretation. "I don't know... it felt like someone was watching me, I guess. Well, I'll see you later." She quickly stood up and speed-walked out of the console room, unaware that the Doctor's worried eyes were following her for as long as they could before she disappeared.

He had been worried ever since her little breakdown in the cabinet room, which was why he was tinkering now, to keep himself busy so he didn't have to think too hard on it. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget how Virgo acted back then. It was like the image was glued to the top of his mind, never to be forgotten until he figured out what was wrong with her.

Well, that was a mystery to solve for another day, because an emergency signal arrived on the monitor with a small beeping sound, and the location from where it was coming from was new.

Utah, America, 2012. What a ride _this_ will be.

A/N: Ugh... I just went to stupid Maze Day at school (getting your lockers, schedules, textbooks, other useless stuff) and the only thing I'm excited for is French. I wanted to take Spanish because I actually know some stuff... but with French I get to saw Allons-y! If the teacher says something about if we know any words, I'm totally saying that Doctor Who speech in the _Voyage of the Damned_. I know I'm not because I'm going to do it in my head, but I will definitely say I learned allons-y from Doctor Who and just hope there will be Whovians in the class who get the reference :D

I feel bad because I feel that the last two chapters were just bland, so I tried to spice this one up a bit with some cuteness between Virgo and the Doctor. And can I just say, so excited for Father's Day!

Thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows because they warm my heart everytime I get that email! I love you guys and I hope you're all having a good life! 3


	16. Dalek: Exterminate

The TARDIS materialized in a giant room with a high ceiling and display cases containing artifacts of some kind. No one could see what was actually in the cases because the room was horribly lit up with lamps hanging from the ceiling. It was a miracle to actually see your feet because it was lit that dimly.

The magical trio stepped out of the box, the Time Lords looking the same as ever except for one little twist for Virgo: she was wearing a white sweater that was two sizes too big... with a panda bear on it. She merely said that she wanted to try something new with her fashion sense and decided to wear her tank-top underneath her new sweater, but Rose knew what she was trying to do: she was trying to hide the baby. If you looked at Virgo closely without the sweater on, you could barely tell she was a little over two months pregnant, so you could barely tell she was pregnant at all. Apparently, she didn't want to risk anything.

"So, what is it?" Rose questioned the Time Lords once everyone was out of the TARDIS. "What's wrong?"

"Don't know," the Doctor shrugged as he looked around, knowing it was pointless because it was so dark. "Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course."

"Where are we?"

"Welcome to America, Rose," Virgo gestured all around herself with a giant grin. "Utah, America, North America, Earth, the Solar System."

"And _when_ are we?" Rose smiled a bit in excitement for finally getting to a place she hasn't been to before.

"2012," the Doctor informed her as he walked over to a display case to try and find a light switch so everyone could really see where they were. Of course, they could just scan the surroundings, but that takes the fun out of everything.

"God, that's so close," Rose breathed with wide eyes. "So I should be..." She did a little math in her head, "26."

The Doctor managed to find the light switch that was, for some reason, on a display case and the whole room lit up. The once mysterious display cases were now not so mysterious anymore because inside them were alien artifacts from various species.

"Blimey!" Rose looked around the room, not really expecting to be in a museum. They were in _Utah_ for God's sake; the state in America that absolutely adored aliens. To be in a museum instead of a desert was... surprising to say the least. "It's a great big museum."

"Close, an _alien_ museum," Virgo corrected. "Clearly these items are not of Earth origin just by looking at the designs."

"Someone's got a hobby," the Doctor added. "They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."

"That's a bit of Slitheen!" Rose gaped and pointed at a certain display that had a giant Slitheen arm being held up by some black holders. "That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed..."

"Oh, look at you," the Doctor remarked breathlessly as he stood in front of a display where a robot's head was showing off to the whole world.

Virgo was immediately by his side when she saw what he was looking at and added a little whistle, "I haven't seen these guys in _ages_. Not planning to in the future, but it has been awhile..."

"What is it?" Rose asked them when she saw it too, wanting to know why the Time Lords were a bit amazed at a tin head thing. From what she had seen so far, this wasn't the scariest alien she had ever seen (if it was even an alien); that would probably be the Adherents of the Repeated Meme only because they slapped her so hard that they knocked her out and nearly burned her to death. She couldn't see what could be so scary about a robot in a display case.

"An old friend of mine," the Doctor shrugged absently. "Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"Is that where the signal's coming from?"

"Nah, that head's as good as dead," Virgo waved her off. "The signal's alive, apparently, and it's reaching out to any help it can get, so that could mean that not everyone's on good terms with each other."

The Doctor proceeded to lay merely a finger on the glass from the flashbacks of his adventures with the Cybermen, and once he touched it, an alarm immediately went off and guards with guns surrounded the trio. They raised their hands up to the sky, but none of them were shocked that they were caught being in a museum full of alien artifacts.

"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you two Exhibits A and B," Rose muttered with a pointed look.

SCENE BREAK

In a long and narrow corridor, a few guards were following a man who looked rich with his warm clothes and rather precise haircut and mustache, some more people in suits talking to him about business. By business, it meant the President and Van Statten's birthday.

"On behalf of all of us, I want to wish you a very happy birthday, sir," a young man smiled tensely at the rich man, Van Statten, who was clearly his boss. "And the President called to convey his personal best wishes."

Instead of being grateful or thankful for the President's kindness, it was the exact opposite because Van Statten replied, "The President is ten points down. I want him replaced."

"I don't think that's very wise, sir," the young man said hesitantly with a small frown.

"Thank you _so much_ for your opinion," Van Statten said sarcastically. "You're fired. Get rid of him."

"What?" the young man gaped at his ex-boss before two guards that were following behind Van Statten dragged him away.

"Wipe his memory," Van Statten ordered without looking back or pausing in his walking, "put him on the road someplace; Memphis, Minneapolis, somewhere beginning with an 'M.'" Now that the young man's place was empty, a woman with curly hair in a ponytail quickly took his place in walking right alongside Van Statten. "So, the next President. What do you think? Republican or Democrat?"

"Democrat, sir," the replacement instantly answered without thinking too much upon it, not exactly caring about who it would be. As long as she could keep her memory, everything was fine.

"For what reason?" her boss eyed her closely.

"They're... just... so funny, sir," the woman slowly said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

Van Statten paused in his walking, causing everyone else to stop with him. The woman tensed up, not liking how he was staring at her with narrowed eyes, and that probably wasn't a good thing. It took her three years to get into this spot, and she was not about to get her memory wiped by a simple Democrat or Republican question.

"What is your name?" Van Statten questioned her calmly.

"Goddard, sir," the woman, now called Goddard, replied just as calmly. "Diana Goddard."

"I like you Diana Goddard," Van Statten nodded in approval and resumed walking, Goddard blowing a bit of air in relief once his head was turned. "So, where's the English kid?"

On cue, a young man in a gray sweater and dark brown hair came running excitedly over to him from the opposite direction the little possy was walking in. What was different about him was that he was the only one in this entire complex with a British accent while everyone else had their American ones.

"Sir!" the 'English kid' exclaimed with a grin. "Sir! I bought ten more artefacts at auction, Mister Van Statten."

His boss nodded in approval, "Bring 'em on, let me see 'em."

"Sir - with respect - there's something more urgent," Goddard laughed nervously, adding the 'with respect' part more urgently than anything said in that sentence. "We arrested three intruders 53 floors down. We don't know how they got in."

"I'll tell you how they got in," Van Statten smirked knowingly. "In-tru-da window. In-tru-da-window... That was funny!" Everyone quickly laughed tensely but it seemed to be good enough for him. "Bring 'em in. Let's see 'em. And tell Simmons I want to visit my little pet. Get to it!"

He stepped through a doorway while Goddard stayed behind and placed her finger on her headset she was wearing on her ear.

"Simmons?" she said into it. "You'd better give me some good news. Is it talking?"

Simmons, in another room somewhere, lifted his visor and squinted at the alien in front of him. He was wearing a protective suit and holding a chainsaw in his hand.

"Not exactly talking, no," he shook his head with a sigh, so done with not getting any results from all these genius tactics he had came up with to get the alien to say even one word.

"Then what's it doing?"

"Screaming," Simmons offered, both of them knowing it was an improvement at least. "Is _that_ any good?"

SCENE BREAK

The Doctor, Virgo, Rose, Goddard, the 'English kid,' and Van Statten were in an office, no doubt of it being Van Statten's, and the 'English kid' was showing his boss the new purchases from some auction. He was showing him one particular piece of metal with three holes, like little pipes, alongside each other, connected to a flat surface the size of a palm.

"And this is the last," the 'English kid' gave him the little piece of metal. "Paid 800,000 dollars for it."

"What does it do?" Van Statten asked him as he flipped the metal upside down to get another view of it.

"Well, you see the tubes on the side?" the 'English kid' pointed to them. "It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel."

Virgo suddenly burst out laughing a bit as though they were idiots. Fuel? Really? That's like saying a trumpet is used for a turning wheel on a car. She could see why the humans would think that the piece of metal would be used on spaceships because of the tubes... but it was still quite funny to her.

"I've heard a lot of things," Virgo mused after sobering up. "But... really?!"

"Shut it," Goddard ordered harshly, complete with a giant glare at her. That did nothing but get on Virgo's bad side, so the Time Lady glared at her, too.

"Oh, that's nice," she huffed in annoyance. "But anyway, please don't hold it like that because that is fragile and I hate to see it being used incorrectly."

"Is it dangerous?" the 'English kid' eyed her carefully, wondering how she could possibly know about whatever the piece of metal was.

"Dangerous?" Virgo scoffed as if that was the most absurd thing she ever heard.

"It just looks silly," the Doctor agreed agreed and reached out his hand to take the piece of metal. When he did, a million guns were pointed at him because the guards thought he was going to try to hurt Van Statten. When the said man gave the all-clear, he gave the Time Lord the metal piece. "You just need to be delicate." He rubbed his fingers softly on the tubes and a beautiful sound was produced.

"It's a musical instrument," Van Statten leaned in closer in awe on his desk.

"And it's a long way from home," the Doctor added. He learned to play this quite a long time ago, even before the Time War began. His original goal had been to learn how to play this so well that it'll make everyone burst into tears when he played it... and when that never happened, he decided to just stick with time and space travel and bring humans to tears from seeing beautiful sights. Come to think of it, that hasn't happened yet either...

"Here, let me," Van Statten snatched the instrument out of the Doctor's hand without warning and rubbed his fingers on the tubes. Instead of a beautiful sound, a harsher sound was made that made everyone cringe.

"Key word here: delicate," Virgo advised hurriedly, just wanting to get the noise out of her head. "It reacts to the smallest finger print, so it needs precision. Softly."

Van Statten eventually managed to produce that beautiful noise after several awful attempts at playing it. The noise was still a bit off, but it was much better than before.

"Very good," the Doctor nodded in approval. "Quite the expert."

"As are you," Van Statten countered and eyed them as he tossed the instrument to the floor, Virgo saying that is was fragile merely 'slipping' his mind. "Who exactly are you two?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Virgo," the Doctor introduced them both. "And who are you?"

"Like you don't know," Van Statten scoffed and paced around the room. "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"If you're going to imply that we're thieves, we're not," Virgo rolled her eyes, knowing where this was going from the moment he said 'valuable.' "We're not stealing anything, we just happened to land here... which means the last part you said was pretty much true... Sorry, carry on." She smiled at Van Statten widely.

"The question is, how did you get in?" he continued and eyed her oddly. "53 floors down with your little cat burglar accomplice." He smirked and stood in front of Rose. "You two are quite the collectors yourselves, she's rather pretty."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her 'she,'" Rose wasn't amused so she glared at him, but it didn't affect Van Statten. In fact, he was quite pleased with her answer.

"She's English, too!" he beamed happily. "Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, got you a girlfriend." He was talking to the 'English kid.'

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten," the 'English kid' introduced his boss quietly and didn't meet his eyes.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose countered slyly.

"Mister Van Statten owns the Internet."

"Don't be stupid, no one owns the Internet."

"And let's keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?" Van Statten chuckled evilly with a smirk, so happy to think that the human race was dumb enough to believe what they hear all the time.

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum," the Doctor changed the subject back to the matter at hand. "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten raised an eyebrow at this.

"I don't _need_ to make claims," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "I _know_ how good I am, same goes for her." He pointed at Virgo, who gave a little wave to Van Statten.

"And yet, I captured you," Van Statten said. "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

"The Cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

Well, that escalated quickly. One minute they were talking about why they were down at the museum part of the facility, and the next Van Statten just asked if the Doctor wanted to see the alien that was being tortured by Simmons. What just happened?

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone," Rose shook her head at the two of them bantering.

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down," Van Statten ordered around. "You, English, look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you two, Doctor-with-no-name and Virgo... come and see my pet."

"Who said I was going to see your 'pet?'" Virgo crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you're clearly a genius, too," Van Statten shrugged. "The more the merrier, right?"

SCENE BREAK

And so the group that consisted of Van Statten, Goddard, the Doctor, and Virgo arrived in a little room that was connected to the Cage where there were a bunch screens and buttons connected to the wall that were clearly supervising Van Statten's 'pet.' Virgo desperately wanted to have another word in mind to describe Van Statten's prisoner, but nothing good was coming to mind. Oh well, maybe once the lights were on on the screens then she could identify it properly.

"We've tried everything," Van Statten was saying to the intruders as they arrived. "The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside."

"Inside?" the Doctor's neutral face quickly turned into one of confusion. "Inside what?"

Simmons moved into the scene before Van Statten could answer the Time Lord (don't think he was going to answer anyway) with shaking his boss's hand.

"Welcome back, sir," Simmons greeted with an almost forced smile, just like everyone who worked here has. "I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"What sort of name is 'Metaltron?'" Virgo grimaced at the word, the Daleks and Cybermen were the first aliens to come to mind that were made of metal. Well, Daleks were made out of Dalekanium, but that's still a type of metal, right?

"Thought of it myself," Van Statten stated proudly. "Good, isn't it? Although I'd much prefer to find out its real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on," Simmons offered his pair of gauntlets to the Doctor, who didn't bother to take them. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames." The horrifying part about this was that Simmons didn't even looked upset or fazed at that fact, like it was a common occurrence.

"I won't touch it then," the Doctor eyed the gauntlets uneasily, noticing the little scratch and burnt marks on them.

Simmons rolled his eyes and turned to Virgo, the offer now being passed down to her, "Take the gauntlets."

"Don't think I will, thank you," Virgo refused politely and even went as far as gently pushing the hands away with her finger. "Besides, I'm not going in."

"You're not?" the Doctor turned to her with a frown, a surprised frown mind you.

"This is an alien that's been locked up for God knows how long," Virgo told him as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're going to be a new face, so it might get scared. It doesn't need two new faces. I don't want to make it feel any more threatened than it should, so staying out here while you do all the dirty work would be better." She sighed with a realization. "I'm letting you do a lot of these lately. I think I need to step up my game a little."

"Oh, you're 'letting' me, are you?" the Doctor rolled his eyes at her with mock-annoyance.

"Go ahead, Doctor," Van Statten gestured to the heavy-duty door that was now being opened up by a bald scientist. "Impress me." The Doctor saw no reason not to do so and proceeded into the Cage, the scientist closing the door once he was in. "Don't open that door until we get a result."

"And what kind of result do you want?" Virgo questioned as she, him, and Goddard made their way over to the monitors to watch the scene in the next room unfold.

"We're trying to get it to talk," Van Statten told her.

Virgo suddenly chuckled silently with her face screaming regret all over it. If this lot wanted to get the alien prisoner to talk, _she_ should have went in and _not_ the Doctor. The Doctor was going to ramble on and on and not let the alien have a single chance to respond, if it didn't get frightened by him. Virgo could have spoken to it with a gentle tone and ask simple questions, introductory questions.

On the screen, the Doctor was standing right next to the door in the dark room, the scientists working on the lights.

"Look, I'm sorry about this," the Time Lord apologized on behalf of the humans. "Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

That was when his and Virgo's worst nightmare came true.

In the back of the room, two pale lights blinked every time the alien talked on some round structure, possibly the head.

"Doc-tor?" the Dalek's voice was strong and angry, surprising because it hadn't spoken in so long and it was still able to have a tone to send shivers down anyone's spine.

"Impossible...," the Doctor widened his eyes in panic, not even needing the lights to come on to know what was standing - or sitting - in front of him.

" _The_ Doctor?!" the Dalek questioned with fury, and that's when the lights finally came on to reveal it was wrapped up in chains connected to the floor. Its eyestalk was trained firmly on the Time Lord with its icy blue light, a sight that were many people's last thing they saw before they were killed. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

"Let me out!" the Doctor pounded on the door in pure terror, horrified that it was going to kill him. The only relief on his mind was that Virgo had decided to stay in the little room and not with him. That was it. The rest was unfairness and terror. They were supposed to be dead! That was the whole reason why the Time Lords and Gallifrey were now gone: to kill the Daleks and let the universe live in peace and silence.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

"Get him out of there!" Virgo cried and pushed her way passed the scientists and pressed random buttons in hopes of getting the door open. "Open the door! Do it now!"

"Sir, it's going to kill him!" Goddard gaped as she watched Van Statten pull Virgo away from the controls and into the hands of a guard. The guard himself didn't like the arrangement but didn't dare speak a word, otherwise it was his head that would pay the price.

"It's _talking_!" the evil boss waved her off, full fascination plastered upon his face.

"You are an enemy of the Daleks!" the Dalek in the Cage declared quite loudly at the Doctor, who was still at the door in panic mode. "You must be destroyed!" The metal gun was twitching all over the place, but there was no bolt of blue light that would kill any form of life in a matter of seconds.

Once the Doctor realized he wasn't dead, he turned his head to the Dalek to see what was wrong, "It's not working." Outside, Virgo visibly relaxed when she heard him say this. The Doctor started to laugh in joy and happiness, all signs of panic and terror were now gone. "Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?" He stormed over to the Dalek.

"Keep back!" the Dalek ordered him and rolled as far back as the chains would allow it, which was a measly two or three inches, but the Doctor didn't stop walking. He stood right in front of the eyestalk in anger.

"What for?" he dared it. "What're you going to do to me? If you can't kill me, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing. What the hell are you here for?!"

"I am waiting for orders," the Dalek informed him without hesitation.

"What does that mean?" the Doctor furrowed his eyebrows at the statement, it sounding unusual to come from it.

"I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders."

"Well, you're not going to get any. Not ever."

"I demand orders!"

"They're never going to come!" the Doctor insisted with a yell with a hint of satisfaction to it. "Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!" the Dalek screamed, its voice holding a sort of desperation and sadness, which was odd for a Dalek.

"I watched it happen," the Time Lord smirked proudly and moved his head real close to the eyestalk. "I _made it_ happen!"

"You... destroyed... us?" the Dalek questioned slowly in shock, causing the Doctor's face to soften visibly.

The said Time Lord stormed away from it and faced the wall, his face full of age and regret, "I had no choice."

"And what of the Time Lords?"

"Dead," the Doctor partially lied to it. Virgo was still alive, but he was not about for one second to tell the Dalek that in case it ever escaped and went after him. He'd let it kill him before he ever told it about the last Time Lady. "They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War... Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived," the Dalek stated and if it had a proper mouth, it would most certainly be smirking smugly at him.

"Oh, and I caught your little signal," the Doctor said sarcastically. "'Help me. Poor, little thing.'" He turned back around and pointed an accusing finger at the Dalek. "But there's no one else coming 'cos there's no one else left!"

"I am... alone... in the universe," the Dalek's eyestalk focused on the ground in front of the Doctor.

Proud with the way this was turning out, the Doctor simply nodded with a, "Yep."

"So are you... We are the same."

"We're not the same!" the Doctor argued angrily, extremely offended to be compared to a Dalek. "I'm not..." He paused in his accusation and really thought about it. "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cos I know what to do. I know what should happen, I know what you deserve." He walked over to the little console attached to the wall with a grin. "Ex-ter-min-ate." He pulled a lever and the Dalek was surrounded in little bolts of electricity.

"Have pity!" the Dalek pleaded in pain, but the Doctor wouldn't stop torturing it for one moment.

"Why should I?" he honestly asked it and messed around with some of the buttons. "You never did!"

In the next room over, Van Statten turned to a guard, "Get him out."

The guard that was in charge of restraining Virgo released her and followed his colleagues into the other room to stop the Doctor from torturing and possibly killing the Dalek.

"Help me!" the Dalek pleaded to the humans as they grabbed the Doctor and yanked him away from the controls.

"Doctor, you idiot!" Virgo spat at him with a glare and turned off the electricity. She may hate the Daleks _so_ much, but that didn't mean that she liked to see anything or anyone being in by purposeful methods. Besides, she needed to appear to be on Van Statten's side so she could bust the Doctor out from the trouble he just caused to himself.

"I saved your life," Van Statten stood in front of the Dalek. "Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!" The Dalek didn't respond to him. "The last in the universe, and now I know your name: Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek. I am Henry Van Statten, now recognize me!" The Dalek just wouldn't budge. "Make it talk Simmons... whatever it takes."

Simmons seemed all too pleased by that order because his smile was absolutely evil-looking.

A/N: I apologize that I didn't update. I have my reasons.

For starters, I had found myself a little under the weather so I couldn't really focus on this too much because things kept bothering me badly. Next reason: school had started (I'm going to fail French, just saying right now) and I have found myself... well, if the Doctor says he's homeless, let's say I'm friendless. Not completely because I have this other friend, but we're growing distantly and only text to each other once a week. My ex-best friend has this other friend whom I think hates me because she won't even glance at me and just take my ex-bestie away from me when I really don't need that. It's just a repeat of 8th grade all over again and I don't think I can handle that both mentally and physically.

Anyway, none of that's important because I want to give a quick shout-out to BlackRoseBooks for being my first official author follower AND favoriter! Thank you very much for doing this for little ol' me! *free hug and cookie dough*

Once again, I apologize for not updating and I'll be honest here: I don't like _Dalek_ very much so I can't promise that the next two chapters will be very... epic. But, I do promise that something will be in _Long Game_ that will be important and essential to this story. Thank you for sticking with me through this adventure and I look forward to get back to the swing of updating when I can :D


	17. Dalek: Chase

Dalek: Chase!

While Virgo and the Doctor were off in an elevator to go up a few floors to what was probably going to be a torture chamber, Adam was showing Rose his little workspace. It was a decent sized room with whole shelves of metal junk that Adam suspected are alien artifacts from spaceships. There was a table in the middle of the room with blueprints of the junk and some lined papers full of guesses of what the junk could be used for; the musical instrument he showed to Van Statten had its own little area in the bunch. Since everything was scattered all over the place, it was obviously quite dirty and the ceiling was probably the cleanest thing in the whole room.

Once Rose had stepped in, she wasn't really surprised to see how different the metal scrap was from the metal that was used on Earth thanks to her new travelling companions. Of course, she wasn't an expert yet but she was determined to make that change in the near future. She just didn't feel like sitting in the library and cramming in random knowledge. Nah, hearing the Doctor and Virgo talk was more entertaining than a ruddy old book.

"Sorry about the mess," Adam apologized to her quickly, thinking that she was judging him by the tidiness. "Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods. What do you think that is?" In hopes of impressing her, he took an inch long piece of metal out and handed it to his new crush.

"Er, a lump of metal," Rose shrugged, knowing that it was probably from some construction sight on Earth because it hardly looked anything like a spaceship part.

"Yeah, yeah," Adam chuckled nervously, afraid of what she'll say to what he's about to say to her, "but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft." Rose widened her eyes in exaggeration, and Adam seemed to buy it. "The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet - spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth - they really exist."

"That's amazing," Rose breathed in fake amazement and silently thanked her drama teacher from high school for everything he taught her about trying to look impressed when you know you're not.

"I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just _teeming_ with life," Adam said sheepishly.

"I'm gobsmacked, yeah. And you do what, sit here and catalogue it?"

"Best job in the world."

Rose smiled softly and leaned against the table with crossed arms. Oh God, she was turning into Virgo, wasn't she, with the crossed armed thing? She really did need to talk to her about it very soon. And so, that's when the little human made a promise to herself to really talk to the Time Lady as soon as they were done with whatever Van Statten wanted from the Doctor and her. Nothing was going to hold her back... hopefully.

"Imagine if you could get out there...," she spoke thoughtfully and a tiny bit from experience. "Travel amongst the stars and see it for real."

"Yeah, I'd give anything," Adam agreed to her silent wish with a thoughtful smile on his own face. "I don't think it's ever going to happen, not in our lifetimes."

"Oh, you never know," Rose hinted and started to fiddle with a tiny piece of metal on the table. "What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?"

"I think they're nutters," he admitted even though he'd love to believe that people in this century had actually been to space.

"Yeah, me too. So... how'd you end up here?"

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"Oh, right," Rose rolled her eyes sarcastically at him, refusing to believe that the man in front of her could get a better grade in math than her. If Van Statten needed geniuses, why didn't he ask for Stephen Hawking instead of this guy right here? " _You're_ a genius."

"Sorry, but yeah," Adam countered proudly with a sly smile. "I can't help it. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three."

"What, and that's funny, is it?" Rose gaped at how easily Adam could talk about that and not be embarrassed or angry at himself for what he did.

"Well, you should've been there just to see them running about," Adam chuckled. "Fantastic!"

"You sound like the Doctor..."

"Are you and him...?"

"No, we're just friends. Besides, a little someone I know already has her eyes set out for him."

"Good."

"Why is it good?" Rose asked him innocently with a shy smile.

"It just is," Adam said as if it wasn't a big deal. The two of them stared at each other through their eyes, Rose completely forgetting about Mickey for the current moment. He wasn't even in the correct time-zone as she was. A little flirting couldn't hurt, could it? Besides, they weren't really... together anymore, thanks to the Doctor messing up the landing.

"So...," Rose forced herself to look away and focused on the items on the shelves in hopes that she would get over this little fuzzy feeling around Adam, "wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but Mister Van Statten's got a _living creature_ down there."

"Yeah, yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself," Adam replied. He suddenly formed a secretive smile on his face, like he had a cunning mastermind plan. "Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. system."

Rose laughed and nodded, "Let's have a look, then." She followed the supposed 'genius' toward the back of the room where a lone, black computer was sitting there with the screen showing some website. The keyboard looked a bit disgusting, just like everything else in this room. Did Adam not know how to look after himself or did he have a co-worker who shares this office with him?

"It doesn't do much, the alien," Adam commented as he clicked out of the website and started to hack the computer. "It's weird, it's kind of useless. It's just like this great, big pepper pot." A video suddenly popped up and the two of them watched as Simmons drilled something into the Dalek, causing it to cry out in pain.

"It's being tortured!" Rose gasped in horror. "Where's the Doctor and Virgo?"

"I don't know," Adam shrugged, not surprised that the Dalek was being tortured. It was on a regular basis, though he did feel sorry for the poor thing as did everyone else who worked here (besides Simmons and Van Statten).

"Take me down there now," the blonde ordered him without having a clue at what was going to happen in the near future.

Adam didn't dare to argue once he saw Rose's determined glare, so he simply pursued his lips and jogged out of the room to the Cage.

.l.l.l.

While the two youngsters were off to visit the Dalek and about to make a very big mistake, the Doctor, Van Statten, Goddard, Virgo, and some guards were all squeezed into an elevator that was going up. The rich man stood in the middle of the tiny room and stared at the numbers on the screen above the doors because there was nothing else to do. Goddard was right next to him, the Doctor was off on his other side being restrained still by a guard, and Virgo was in the corner.

The Time Lady was feeling a bit anxious that Van Statten hadn't given the order to release the Doctor yet, and since seeing how restrained the Dalek was and all the torture devices, she was pretty sure Van Statten wasn't going to let this information go to waste. It was why she was in the corner in the first place; to be as far away from him as possible. If it wasn't for her condition, she'd be standing right next to the Doctor and glaring daggers at the rich man.

While they were waiting for the doors to open - and this all suddenly felt like a repeat of Henrick's again - the Doctor was telling Van Statten about the horrors of the Dalek. Virgo would occasionally add irresistible, bitey comments about them because she could and hated them so much. The Daleks were responsible for her father's and nephew's deaths; the rest of her family were all killed by the time-lock.

"The metal's just battle armour," the Doctor was saying with a pained and angry look on his face, the same look that Virgo had on her's. "The real Dalek creature's inside."

"What's it look like?" Van Statten asked him in wonder.

"The ugliest, meanest, tiniest octopus-squid you will ever come into contact with," Virgo spat out at him. "The only thing admirable about them is how shiny they keep their armour without anyone having to polish it for them."

"It's a mutation," the Doctor translated whatever Virgo said over to Van Statten. "The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate."

"Genetically engineered," Van Statten nodded in approval at how advanced the Dalek really was. "By whom?"

"By an even uglier, rude, horrible, heartless man," Virgo said her next words even harsher than before, as if she hated Davros more than the Daleks themselves. "He was a genius, Van Statten, a king of an entire planet. I'm sure you two would have gotten on brilliantly."

"It's been on Earth or over fifty years," Goddard informed them about the Dalek's whereabouts. "Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?"

"Because I'm here," the Doctor told her as if it explained everything... in which it really did. He was the Dalek's worst enemy, and that would only give it enough anger to break free and exterminate everyone on the base. "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite," Goddard explained briefly. "It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane..."

"It's already insane," Virgo rolled her eyes. "It was born insane and will always be insane for as long as it lives. I'll make it even more insane until its head explodes." If looks could breathe fire, then Virgo's glare at the walls would turn them into ashes in mere seconds - no, milliseconds.

"It must have fallen through time," the Doctor eyed the Time Lady worriedly, promising himself to get this done as fast as possible. "The only survivor."

"You talked about a war?" Goddard turned her head to the Time Lord once she found that she had counted all the buttons on the wall and multiplied them all by two - just something to do because it really was getting to be a long flight up the elevator.

"The Time War," the Doctor confirmed. "The final battle between my people and the Dalek race." He wasn't saying 'our people' because he, too, had caught on that Van Statten seemed to be too calm with aliens in the room.

"But you survived, too," the said man pointed out curiously.

"Not by choice..."

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

The two Time Lords exchanged nervous glances, both of them not liking the way that Van Statten had said that sentence. It sounded like the human was hinting at something that would be pleasing for him but very uncomfortable for the Doctor and possibly Virgo.

.l.l.l.

Their worries were confirmed.

Due to the fact that Van Statten knew about the Doctor being an alien, he had him stripped of his jacket and jumper and chained up to a table attached to the wall. When it was revealed what they were going to do to the Time Lord, Virgo had attempted to stop them but was immediately locked in the next room over so she couldn't interfere with the Doctor's torture.

She was currently pacing around the room and biting her lip. She couldn't get out because she had realized right then and there that she forgot to get her sonic screwdriver from inside the TARDIS. Today of all days she forgot to bring one of the most important things in her life along for an adventure such as this. Today of _all days_!

The walls weren't exactly thick, so Virgo could hear each and every shriek of pain the Doctor was making from whatever was causing him to react like that. It made her sick to her stomach that Van Statten was so heartless and selfish to just experiment on an alien painfully without caring about anyone else. She didn't understand how he was still rich and perhaps even a bit "famous." If a lot of people knew about him, it sounded like he wasn't like that for a very long time otherwise his name would have appeared in an Earth history textbook.

Since she could hear the Doctor's screaming, she could also hear the conversation that was taking place between him and Van Statten. The Doctor was accusing him of things that he was clearly responsible for and compared him to a Dalek, saying that a Dalek was more honest than the human. Van Statten had reassured the Doctor the Dalek was completely contained, but the Time Lord kept trying to convince him that it will only escape now because it knew that he was here.

"I'm sure he'll release him soon," Goddard's voice caused Virgo to stop pacing and stare right at the human. The said woman was sitting at the table, twiddling her thumbs in an awkward silence.

Virgo could only scoff at that, "Oh, yes, I'm sure your messed-up boss will let the Doctor waltz on out of here as if nothing had happened. It'll be just like that Dalek, won't it?"

"And what exactly is a Dalek?" Goddard asked, changing the subject slightly in hopes to help the Time Lady calm down. She wasn't as heartless as Van Statten.

Virgo crossed her arms and eyed the human oddly, "You seem confident that I know all about the Daleks, just as much as the Doctor does."

"Well, it's not too hard to work out that you're an alien, too. I won't tell him, I won't tell Van Statten, I promise. I just want to know exactly what we have in our hands."

"A Dalek is a mutated nightmare," the Time Lady sighed and pulled up a chair, wincing when she heard another shriek from the Doctor. Goddard had closed her eyes in pity when she heard it. "It's born to kill and will never stop killing until everything that's not Dalek is exterminated. They're responsible for so many extinct species and millions upon billions of devastated families throughout the universe."

"So when the Doctor verified that it's a threat..."

"It can literally break out at any moment. All it needs is a cellular reconstruction from something alive and it's good to go."

Goddard rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration at this fact, "Then what do we do if it breaks out?"

"We can't do anything," Virgo told her honestly. "The only hope we have is if one of the soldiers can shoot through the forcefield and into the eyestalk with immense concentration. Believe me, it's not an easy thing to do."

.l.l.l.

A very long way downstairs, Adam and Rose arrived at the tiny room directly next to the Cage. Before either of them could get in, a stern-looking soldier blocked their path with his arm in front of the door to the Cage with a, "Hold it right there."

Adam simply took out a card and flashed it at him, "Level three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten."

That seemed to be good enough for the security guard because he opened up the door and allowed Adam and Rose inside.

Rose was the first one in and immediately grew upset when she saw the Dalek in the corner, it's eyestalk staring at the ground in front of it. Since she had no idea what a Dalek was capable of, she automatically pitied it and wished that there was something she could do to comfort it. What would the Doctor and Virgo do in this scenario?

"Don't get too close," Adam warned her as the door shut behind them. She didn't pay attention to him because her eyes were firmly fixed on the broken Dalek before her.

"Hello," her tone was soft and gentle so that she wouldn't scare the Dalek. "Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler. I've got some friends, they can help. They're called the Doctor and Virgo. What's your name?" The Dalek remained silent for a few moments, as if gathering strength to speak.

"... Yes," it eventually croaked and made Rose frown in confusion.

"What?" she questioned it.

"I am in pain," the Dalek spoke slowly. "They torture me, but still they fear me." It lifted its eyestalk to Rose's head, merely inches away from it. "Do you fear me?"

"No," Rose shook her head.

"I am dying."

"No, we can help!"

"I welcome death," the Dalek returned to staring at the ground once more and that was just baiting Rose even more now. "But I am glad... that before I die... I have met a human who was not afraid."

Rose pursued her lips to stop herself from crying. That was no way to talk, that was just dark and depressing. "Is there anything I can do?"

"My race is dead, and I shall die alone."

Out of sheer sadness, Rose wanted to comfort it as much as possible if it was going to die any second now, so she did the humane thing and reached out to touch its head. When Adam warned her to stop, it was far too late. The metal burned her hand and caused her to shriek and instinctively clutched her hand to her chest.

"Genetic material extrapolated," the Dalek announced, its voice more powerful and frightening. "Initiate cellular reconstruction!" The little spheres on its armor grew more shiny and larger, the other dents were patched up, and the burnt marks disappeared. The Dalek was good as new, and that meant the chaos had begun.

Get your guns out, ladies and gentlemen.

The Dalek rolled backwards to free itself from the chains with its newfound strength, and the chains came undone in under two seconds flat. The door to the Cage opened up to reveal a few security guards and an angry torture master carrying a drill.

"What the hell have you done?!" Simmons shouted at Rose before storming over to the Dalek to chain it back up. The said alien raised its sucker plunger at his face, but Simmons just chuckled darkly. "What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?"

Surprise to him, that was exactly what the Dalek proceeded to do. The plunger covered up his nose and mouth, crushing his head painfully to death.

Adam dragged Rose out of the Cage so the guards could lock up the door and hope that the Dalek would be trapped in there, all of them knowing that there was nothing they could do for poor, old Simmons. He had it coming, though. He was the one who tortured the Dalek everyday in the morning, afternoon, and evening. It was fitting that he was the first to die in the bloodbath today.

"It's killing him!" Rose pointed out the obvious as the door got locked up. "Do something!"

No one dared open the door (as Simmons was most likely dead by now and they didn't want to suffer the same fate as him) and the guard that allowed Rose and Adam in, Bywater, spoke through his comm., "Condition red! Condition red! I repeat, this is not a drill!"

.l.l.l.

The announcement for the Dalek's escape had reached all the way to the Doctor's torture chamber. The Time Lord was panting and sweating, and when he heard the announcement, he looked Van Statten in the eye with a hard and promising look.

"Release me if you want to live."

That was all he had to say to get Van Statten to give the order to unchain the Doctor and give him back his clothes. And if he was getting released, that also meant that Virgo was free to go.

.l.l.l.

About three or four minutes later, the Doctor, Virgo, Goddard, and Van Statten all joined up in the rich man's office. It was a fairly clean office with a desk in the corner with a computer on it, some packets full of information on alien artifacts and the Dalek, and some pens. There was a giant flatscreen TV on the wall that was already turned on and was showing visual in the little room next to the Cage. Rose and Adam could be clearly seen on it, but none of them realized that some people were watching them.

"You've got to keep it in that cell," the Doctor told the guards that were gathering in the little room urgently.

Rose was the first one to spot him so she leaned into the screen, " _Doctor, it's all my fault._ "

" _I've sealed the compartment_ ," a guard next to the blonde reported, his face tiny compared to how much Rose was hogging up the screen. " _It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations._ "

"It doesn't matter how many combinations there are," Virgo clenched her fists angrily. "That little pepperpot is a smart one. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in _one second flat_."

To confirm her claim, the door to the Cage flew open not two seconds later to reveal the Dalek standing/sitting there calmly.

" _Open fire!_ " Bywater commanded, and that's exactly what every single soldier in the room proceeded to do. Rose winced and backed away every time a bullet was shot at the Dalek, which was making no effect on it. It was just staring blankly at them all, waiting for everyone to waste their bullets.

"Don't shoot it!" Van Statten cried out in horror. "I want it unharmed."

"Rose, get out of there!" the Doctor ignored the request because he was focusing on the TV screen, hoping the blonde had enough sense to run. _Really_ run.

" _De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive_ ," Bywater ordered a female soldier with a red cap on. " _That is your job, got that?_ "

De Maggio stepped out of line and stopped shooting her handgun to do as she was told. She nodded her head to Rose and Adam, " _You, with me._ " The trio ran out of the room while everyone else remained in the here.

The Dalek, without a care in the world, slowly glided over to the monitors and broke it with its exterminator gun. It absorbed the electricity, and that caused the final touches to the battle armor to be complete. The color changed from a dirty brown to a glorious golden and the armor looked a lot smoother and cleaner than before. Who needs hospitals these days when you have electricity?

" _Abandoning the Cage, sir_ ," Bywater reported in his comm. and ordered the troops to flee the little room, leaving the newly repaired Dalek alone.

In the office, the lights grew dimmer. Goddard was at the computer, typing and looking at a map of the United States of America for a quick check of everything. She was typing quickly and skimming the words to find the problem.

"We're losing power," she concluded with the shake of her head in disbelief. "It's draining the base. Oh, my God, it's draining the entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

"It's downloading," the Doctor explained briefly, getting Van Statten's attention along the way.

"Downloading what?" the said man questioned, almost fearful for the answer. Hey, he asked it. It's his fault if he won't like the answer.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down," Goddard reported in a bit of a scared and panicking voice, but was doing a good job in trying to keep calm by taking deep breaths.

"It's downloaded the entirety of the Internet," Virgo added onto the Doctor's explanation. "What's on the Internet, the Dalek knows about. And _everything_ is on the Internet."

" _The Daleks survive in me!_ " the Dalek on the screen shouted out a battle cry before using its weapon to take out all the security cameras. The TV switched from viewing the little room to white noise, leaving the office to an aura of shock and intensity.

"The cameras in the vault have gone down," Goddard said after she turned back to her computer to check up on the state of the other cameras in the little room.

"We've only got emergency power," the Doctor said bitterly. "It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it _now_!"

Not questioning his command, Goddard lifted the comm. to her mouth to say, "All guards converge in the Metaltron cage immediately."

.l.l.l.

Back over to Rose and Adam's point of view, the two of them were following de Maggio through a narrow corridor, just past a whole group of guards getting into formation. The guns were out, loaded, and ready to shoot the hell out of the pepperpot. They would most likely fail, but that was part of the job unfortunately, so these men were all ready to give up their lives for the safety of the people.

"Civilians!" de Maggio shouted loudly to the guards, making them clear a little passage so the trio could get through more easily. "Let them through!" They ran down the path and turned a corner, out of sight.

"Cover the north wall," Bywater said into his comm.. He was following the runaway trio to try and escape the Dalek that was following _him_. "Red division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter. Blue division-" He never got to finish his sentence because the Dalek had appeared around the corner and exterminated him the traditional way a Dalek was supposed to do: using the actual weapon and not the toilet plunger.

The guards in the corridor open fired at the Dalek, most of them angry that it killed Bywater and Simmons already, but unfortunately the bullets were hardly doing a thing to penetrate through the stupid forcefield.

Patiently, the Dalek exterminated one guard in the corner, his body glowing blue to reveal the skeleton for a quick second with a cry of pain before slumping to the ground, dead. The guards wouldn't stop shooting, but they were all sensing that it was the end so they were giving silent goodbyes to their families and hoped that their funerals would be brilliant. The Dalek shot and killed each soldier, one by one, until they were all dead.

.l.l.l.

Even though the video surveillance was down, audio could still be heard through the comm. systems, including the gunshots at the Dalek. Van Statten was clearly angry, but not at the Dalek that had just caused probably twenty or thirty deaths in the past two minutes.

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" he told Goddard, scared that one of them were going to kill his most prized possession.

Goddard turned her head to her boss in shocked, wide eyes, "But it's _killing_ them!"

"They're dispensable," he waved her off. "That Dalek is unique." He pressed a button on the desk and spoke into a little microphone. "I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me?" There was just white noise once again, much like the television in the office. "Do you hear me?"

The guards had stopped shooting the Dalek alright, but not in the way that everyone wanted them to. They were all lying dead in the corridor at the Dalek's feet, the alien itself not at all fazed at what it had done.

"Mister Van Statten, you are the worst human being I had ever met," Virgo glared darkly at him, actually causing the rich man to swallow hard and grow a little pale. "You have just lost my care in what happens to you today. If you die, I'll tell your family personally, but I will convince them to throw your body into a supernova." Awkward silence filled the room, and Goddard was the one to break it.

"That's us, right below the surface," she pointed a blinking red light on a three-dimensional, black and white map of the base. "That's the cage, and that's the Dalek."

"This museum of yours, have you got any alien weapons?" the Doctor wondered aloud in curiosity, hoping the answer would be yes. If they had alien weapons, those would be at least ten times more powerful than a measly gun and it would actually have a chance to break through the force field.

"Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive," Van Statten declared with passion, seeming to learn nothing from Virgo's threat. Why is this man called a genius again? "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

"Absolutely not!" Virgo shook her head, desperately wanting to punch the man in the mouth, but he was important because he knew the base by heart. They needed to know how long until the Dalek arrives in the office. "We close the vault, we leave hundreds of people down there, including Rose. She is just a teenager, and I'm not having her die on me today. End of discussion."

"What's that?" the Doctor pointed to a small room on the map, watching Virgo calm herself down in the corner of his eye.

"Weapons testing," Goddard told him simply, what's in the room was in the title.

"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone," the Doctor insisted. "Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

.l.l.l.

Rose, Adam, and de Maggio entered a white room, and luck was on their side today. Literally the only thing in the room was stairs that led up to more corridors so they could easily lose the Dalek. If it did have some way of getting up the stairs, they would be long gone before it reached up to the same floor.

"Stairs!" Rose exclaimed happily, the only good thing that had happened today finally arrived. "It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!"

"It's _coming_!" de Maggio turned the blonde's sentence around and pushed her and Adam to the stairs. "Get up!" They ran up only one flight before the Dalek entered the room and focused its eyestalk on them.

"Great big alien death machine defeated of a flight of stairs," Adam sneered at it.

De Maggio pointed her small gun at the Dalek calmly before saying, "Now listen to me: I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I can guarantee that Mr. Van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you, and maybe that was wrong, but people have died and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that?" The Dalek was silent. "I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?!"

The Dalek only had to speak one word in order to take the trio's breath away.

"El-e-vate."

There was a little blue light under the Dalek as it slowly levitated up in the air, the eyestalk never leaving the trio. Once it was up at an appropriate level, it floated up the stairs slowly.

"Oh, my God," Rose breathed, frozen to the spot and too shocked to get her bearings together.

De Maggio, seeing this, turned to Adam, "Adam, get her out of here." He nodded and grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her away from the guard, but Rose grabbed onto the railing in hopes to save de Maggio's life after everything she had done today.

"Come with us," the blonde pleaded to her. "You can't stop it."

"Someone's got to try," was all the guard could tell her before pushing Rose's back to get her to climb up the stairs. "Now get out! Don't look back, just run!" With one last glance at their savior, Rose allowed Adam to pull her up the stairs and the two of them ran through the corridors.

De Maggio fired continuously at the Dalek with her handgun, wincing every time a bullet rang out. After all this time, she still wasn't used to the sound of it without headphones to block out the sound. She never stopped firing even when the Dalek was barely in front of her.

The Dalek fired at her, causing her to turn blue for a quick moment with a scream before falling down the stairs limply. De Maggio was now dead.

.l.l.l.

Silence had filled up in the office. Van Statten was sitting on the couch in frustration with a clenched fist resting on his temple, the Doctor looking through the files that were on his desk, Goddard typing away at the computer, and Virgo pacing around the room which was her attempt to come up with some brilliant idea that could save so many lives today. That was the problem with Daleks; they were predictable in the killing department but no one knew exactly how to properly stop a Dalek besides shooting directly into the eyestalk. You had to be really skilled at a gun just to kill one Dalek after a few hundred attempts, and that was a huge miracle.

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor," Van Statten spoke after five minutes of thinking time, causing Virgo to stop walking but not turning to face him, the Doctor looking up from the files. "If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something."

"Is that what you want?" Virgo asked softly, still not turning to face the man she could classify as 'evil.' "Do you honestly need a picture to see just how bad things could get if that Dalek even gets a glimpse of the outside? What's the nearest town, city, whatever?"

Van Statten was a little hesitant to respond, but he did so nonetheless, "Salt Lake City."

"Okay, and the population? How many people live there?"

"One million."

"All dead," both she and the Doctor spoke at the same time in the same tone, which was dark and eery.

"If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature," the Doctor added on, causing Van Statten to stand up in anger. "That's all it needs."

"But why would it _do_ that?!" Van Statten nearly screamed in a combo of anger and frustration.

"Because it honestly believe they should die," the Doctor explained to him with a glare. "Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and _you_ , Van Statten, you've let it loose!" The Time Lord stormed over to the little microphone and pressed the button to talk in it. "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

.l.l.l.

"Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot," the commander, who had received the Doctor's order, replied sarcastically. He and a bunch of other guards were in a loading bay, which was a giant room with a catwalk and an entrance at the back to go through another corridor. It's like the base it just one giant path. "Positions!"

The guards under his command took cover behind boxes, walls, packing cases, you name it. They loaded their guns and pointed them at the arch where the Dalek would have to come through.

Instead of a pepperpot strolling into view, it was Rose and Adam.

"Hold your fire!" the commander shouted before any trigger-happy guards could shoot without thinking. "You two, get the hell out of there!"

They didn't argue and sprinted through the room and over to the other side, amazingly not out of breath just yet. They didn't completely move onto the next corridor, so they hid behind the arch to get a look at the Dalek.

The said alien eventually rolled into the room and trained its eyestalk at the little kiddies. It zoomed in on Rose's panting face, getting information on her at lightning speed before Adam pulled her away from the arch and into the hallway.

"It was looking at me," Rose told her new friend uncomfortably.

"Yeah, it wants to slaughter us," Adam agreed, not really caring and it sounded impossible to him that the eyestalk it could focus on one particular thing for a while.

"I know, but it was looking right at me."

"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around."

"I don't know. It's like there's something inside, looking at me like... like it _knows_ me."

Back in the loading bay, the commander raised his arm up in the air to give out an order, "On my mark. Open fire!" The guards didn't hesitate to obey and bullets rang out like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

.l.l.l.

The television screen in the office went from white noise to surveillance in the loading bay, and Goddard was the first one to notice the change.

"We've got vision," she informed everyone in the room, all of them turning their own heads to watch what was about to happen in the loading bay area.

A feeling of dread seeped through both Time Lords' bodies as they both walked over to the TV to watch would would undoubtedly be the final moments for the guards as living specimens.

"It wants us to see," the Doctor said quietly and took hold of Virgo's hand with a squeeze.

The incoming bullets were having no effect on the Dalek, surprise there. It rose up into the air a few inches and shot at a fire alarm, causing mayhem of alarms and sprinklers to shoot down onto the guards. They didn't mind so much, but that wasn't the point the Dalek was trying to make. It waited a few seconds for the water to rain down before shooting at a metal pole, causing everyone who were wet to be exterminated. The only ones it didn't manage to kill were the commander and another guard.

" _Fall back!_ " the commander shouted in panic. " _Fall back!_ "

The Dalek merely shot him and his colleague, leaving silence to fill up the room with the water. The image stayed there for a few seconds before the TV turned into white noise once more.

Everyone in the office were frozen to the spot with Virgo being the only one to have a tear roll down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with her hand and the Doctor squeezed her hand again in comfort, him having seen that she was silently mourning the lives that were just taken.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy," Van Statten admitted quietly, eyes focused on the ground. "Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

Goddard smiled sarcastically at him, "Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We _can't get out_."

"You said we could seal the vault...?" the Doctor asked the rich man as a lightbulb appeared over his head, indicating that he had a plan.

"It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war," Van Statten sighed. "Steel bulkheads-"

"There's not enough power, those bulkheads are _massive_ ," Goddard interrupted, feeling that there was no point for him to explain what was impossible to do.

"We've got emergency power," the Doctor pointed out. "We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors."

"We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius."

Van Statten smirked and walked over to the computer and sat down in the chair, Goddard having abandoned the computer to watch the Dalek kill the guards and commander, "Good thing you've got me, then."

Virgo scoffed and turned to face him, "Seriously? After everything that happened here today, _you_ want to actually _contribute_ to the situation? That's a bit hard to believe, if you ask me."

"I don't want to die, Virgo," Van Statten rolled his eyes at her. "Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me."

"Sir," Goddard pulled his attention away from the computer and pointed at the TV. On it, the water was still pouring down from the sprinklers but the fire alarm had subsided and the Dalek was staring directly at the camera. If the cameras were back on, then that could only mean one thing...

It was time to talk, and it _wasn't_ going to be pleasant.

A/N: Surprise! _.l.l.l._ is going to be the new official scene break to make this story look a bit prettier. I'm too lazy to reupload everything with this symbol, so apologies but I'm sure you'll live.

And I'm really mad right now. Recently I found a spider that's on the bigger side crawling around in my room, and I was fine with that. As long as it respected my distance, I'll respect its... Two days later I woke up with a spider bite on my arm and it _hurts_! I am hurt both physically and emotionally. I thought the two of us were going to be friends but I guess it didn't feel the same way. :(


	18. Dalek: Freedom

Dalek: Freedom

" _I shall speak only to the Doctor!_ " the Dalek's voice thundered over the television speaker, Virgo flinching from how loud its voice was. No one in the room knew if the Dalek could actually see them or if it only knew that the Doctor could see and hear him, but that really wasn't important right now. The only good thing that might come from this conversation would be to delay the Dalek and hope that Rose and Adam would take advantage of this and sprint up the stairs to the office.

Virgo stepped back a bit so the Doctor could face the Dalek the way it wanted him to, but she will be right by his side if this all went downhill.

"You're gonna get rusty," the Doctor said softly with an unreadable look about him.

" _I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler_ ," the Dalek explained, knowing there was no harm in keeping this information a secret. " _Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me._ "

The Doctor didn't really seem to care that much, "What's your next trick?"

" _I have been searching for the Daleks._ "

"Yeah, I saw; downloading the Internet. What did you find?"

" _I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes._ "

"And?"

" _Nothing_ ," the Dalek croaked. For a brief moment, it sounded lost, upset, and confused by this information. It was as if it thought it was impossible for the Dalek race to be nearly extinct, and for that brief moment the Doctor and Virgo pitied it. " _Where shall I get my orders now?_ "

"You're just a soldier without commands," the Doctor sneered at it.

" _Then I shall follow the Primary Order: the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer_ ," and the Dalek's powerful and evil voice was back in action. It _did_ have a tiny bit of emotion in the last sentence it spoke, so that was progress.

"What for?!" the Doctor shouted at it in utter confusion and hatred. "What's the point?! Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for."

" _Then what should I do?_ " the Dalek questioned him, honestly having no idea what to do from now on. Kill Rose and Adam? Find a way back into space and to Skaro? Find a way to bring back the entirety of the Dalek race?

"All right, then," the Doctor nodded with a hard glare. "If you want orders, follow this one: kill yourself."

" _The Daleks must survive!_ "

"The Daleks have failed!" the Doctor screamed at it, actually causing Virgo to jump with wide, horrified eyes. "Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the universe of your filth. Why don't you just _DIE_?!"

There was a moment of silence, an eerie moment of silence for everyone to process what the Doctor had just suggested to do. That was very unlike the Doctor. Never had he ever ordered someone to commit suicide, and from how long the silence was lasting, it sounded like the Dalek was actually considering it.

Finally, the Dalek said, " _You would make a good Dalek._ "

The TV switched off and the Dalek returned to its quest to kill any living thing on sight. Once everything fell silent in the office once again, the Doctor finally realized what he had just said and done, and he wasn't happy about it. His eyes were wide and shocked and his body was tense, and Van Statten and Goddard were staring at him and waiting for orders.

"Seal the vault," Virgo spoke for the Doctor once she saw he was too shocked to snap himself out of it. She grabbed his shoulders and turned him toward her. "Doctor, the Dalek is wrong. You'd make a horrible Dalek. If you let it get to you, you'll have let it won and that's not what we want to happen today. Focus. We need to help Rose and Adam, who're still in danger."

The Doctor inhaled deeply with his eyes closed, then breathed out with eyes open and his body became less stiff. He smiled softly at the Time Lady, who returned the smile.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. The two of them held each other's stare... until Van Statten ruined the moment without realizing it.

"I can leech power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads," he explained after typing in a few codes quickly with a grin. "God, it's been years since I had to work this fast."

"Are you enjoying this?" the Doctor rolled his eyes and pulled away from Virgo's grasp, unaware that she was blushing.

"Doctor... she's still down there," Goddard reminded him with a pointed look.

.l.l.l.

Rose and Adam were running - no, sprinting - up numerous flights of stairs and through many different corridors, some longer with more twists and turns than others. The blonde was lagging behind a bit, the exhaustion starting to catch up to her but Adam seemed to be doing perfectly fine. He wasn't looking back, so that was probably the only reason why he wasn't slowing down, or Rose didn't want him to go down with her if she was going to be slow enough for the Dalek to reach her. The corridors she was fine with, it was the stairs that were really getting to her. She agreed with Virgo when the Time Lady had said that the stairs were going to be her downfall one day.

Just when she followed Adam into another corridor, her phone started ringing in her pocket. Rose rolled her eyes in exasperation and started to dig through her pockets. Now?! They wanted to do this now?! She was kind of in the middle of something and didn't appreciate any distractions at the moment.

"This isn't the best time!" she hissed into the phone, not caring who was on the other end.

" _Where are you?_ " the Doctor's voice came through, a bit more harsh and bitey than usual. Rude.

Rose looked around for some kind of indication of where she and Adam were, and when she made it to another staircase, there was a sign. "Level 49."

" _You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level 46._ "

"Can't you stop them closing?"

"I'm _the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Now for God's sake, run!"_

" _Done it_ ," a voice she hadn't heard in awhile, Van Statten, came through the phone, so it was apparently on speaker. Lovely. It would be a lie if she said that she was pleased to hear that particular voice again. " _We've got power to the bulkheads._ "

" _The Dalek's right behind them_ ," another voice she hadn't heard in awhile spoke through. She only heard that voice once, but she knew it belonged to that rude secretary that told Virgo to shut up. Goddard, right?

"We're nearly there!" Rose panted as she and Adam climbed up the final staircase to level 46. "Give us two seconds!"

" _Doctor, I can't sustain the power_ ," Van Statten informed, and he wasn't talking to the blonde. What's more, he didn't really sound like he was trying or sorry at all. " _The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads._ "

" _Oh, it can hold on for a little longer_ ," Virgo waved him off, though she didn't sound confident that it could. " _It's fine._ "

" _Yeah, it really can't_ ," Van Statten growled at her and gestured to the computer that was showing a warning that the system was failing. It was a little red box that kept flashing on and off with big, white letters. " _He has to do this now!_ "

There was a tense silence and Rose could just imagine Virgo glaring at Van Statten with those deadly eyes of hers, but it was eventually broken by the Doctor with his final decision.

" _I'm sorry_ ," was all he had to say before he pressed a button to lower the bulkhead.

Rose and Adam were now in the corridor with the closing bulkhead and both of them could see that it was being lowered quite slowly, but to them it looked like it was closing at lightning speed. They picked up their pace and Adam was the first one to the bulkhead, so he rolled under it when it was too low for him to crawl.

"Come on!" he cheered Rose on as she got closer and closer to the bulkhead until... she nearly smashed her face into the metal. The bulkhead was sealed. Adam was safe. Rose was on the other side with the Dalek coming in closer.

" _The vault is sealed_ ," Van Statten announced to everyone in the office, but Rose hardly heard him because the phone was down by her side to cover up her heavy breathing.

" _Did you make it, Rose?_ " Virgo asked urgently and Rose winced at how hopeful she sounded. " _You made it, right? You're with Adam on the other side, right? Say something!_ "

The blonde teenager swallowed hard and shakily raised the phone to her ear, her last words to her best friends unprepared for, "Sorry... I was a bit slow." She turned her head to the corridor where the Dalek was now visible and was making its way over to her. "See you, then. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't any of your faults. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault. And you know what?" She chuckled sadly. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

.l.l.l.

" _EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"_ the Dalek cried before there was the sound of a laser and the phone was dead, just like Rose was now.

The phone that was in the office wasn't on speaker anymore, but was being held in between the Time Lords' ears to hear what Rose had to say. After the Dalek cried out, the Doctor immediately turned off the phone and kept it away from their ears in shock. Virgo covered her mouth with her hands and allowed two tears to fall down her cheeks.

"I killed her," the Doctor breathed with wide eyes. Like a wave, his burden of the Time War flooded back over him and his eyes hardened into anger. How was he supposed to tell Jackie that he killed her only daughter, the last remaining tie to Peter Tyler? Granted, he didn't know about Pete yet, but he was going to find out by Jackie shoutings, probably.

"I'm sorry," Van Statten apologized quietly, but even that made everything much, much worse for everyone.

"Say that again," Virgo slowly turned her head and lowered her hands to her sides and clenched them into fists. If it wasn't already obvious, she was _furious_.

"I'm... sorry," Van Statten slowly said and started to panic a little when he saw that Virgo was slowly walking toward him, like a predator stalking its prey.

"Good," she nodded, but didn't stop walking. "Now, say it again."

"I'm sorry."

"One. More. Time."

"I'm sorry!" Van Statten apologized once again, but it sounded more like a plea than an apology. He was now standing up and pressed against the wall with Virgo standing in front of him with her hands on the wall on either side of Van Statten's face.

Without warning, the Time Lady punched him in the face, making sure to make contact with the nose. Van Statten cried out in pain and instinctively clutched his nose while the Doctor dragged Virgo away from him. The Time Lord would have loved to see her mess up the rich man, but they didn't have time for this right now. The Dalek may be trapped temporarily, but that was the key word here: _temporarily_.

The Doctor guided Virgo over to a chair and had her sit down on it while he dealt with the rich man.

"I said I'd protect her!" the Doctor shouted at Van Statten, letting all his thoughts of strangling the man be put into the form of words. "She was only here because of me, and you're _sorry_?! I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me."

Despite being punched in the face, Van Statten still had fight in him, "It was the prize of my collection!" Since he was still holding his nose (with a napkin to stop the blood, courtesy of Goddard), he voice sounded high and squeaky.

"Your _collection_?!" the Doctor scoffed in disbelief. It was apparently possible for a human to be this selfish. "But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater."

"Exactly!" Van Statten nodded excitedly, somehow thinking that the Doctor was agreeing with him. "I wanted to touch the stars!"

"You just wanted to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get, and you took her down with you." The Doctor leaned on the desk in despair and grief. "She was nineteen-years old."

.l.l.l.

Rose, all flesh and blood, was leaning against the bulkhead with her eyes squeezed shut, prepared for the taste of death with her phone dropped on the ground. When she didn't feel anything when she knew she should, she slowly opened her eyes to reveal the Dalek sitting in front of her in silence. It took her a moment or two to realize she was still alive after she felt the coolness of the metal bulkhead, and that's when she grew furious at the alien in front of her.

It wasn't fair if the Dalek was going to spare her life when it killed hundreds of people in just over an hour. They didn't have to die thanks to their noble cause to protect the country; she was just a civilian, as de Maggio had put it. She was no different than anyone here, so what was the point?

"Go on then, kill me," Rose dared it with a glare and clenched fists. "Why're you doing this?" She may be scared of the Dalek, but she was not going to remain alive without an answer from it.

"I am armed," the Dalek threatened, but didn't deliver the threat to her. "I will kill. It is my purpose." It waved its metal exterminator around, as if showing her that it will use this to kill her if that wasn't already clear enough.

"They're all dead because of you!" Rose shouted at it with pure hate, now understanding why the Doctor was torturing it in the first place. Maybe not all of the reasons, but she definitely got the main idea.

"They are dead because of _us_ ," the Dalek corrected which caused Rose to tense up in guilt.

"And now what? What're you waiting for?"

"I feel your fear."

Rose scoffed at the absurd statement, to her, "What do you expect?"

"Daleks must not fear," the Dalek shook a little as it spoke more to itself than the human. "Must not _fear_!" It shot on either side of Rose and made her jump a little from the sudden outburst. "You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated."

.l.l.l.

The tension was still high in the office and it didn't make matters any better when Adam came strolling in like nobody's business. In fact, it only made the tension rise even higher because now it wasn't silent but quite noisy with the Doctor starting the fight (of course) and Adam getting all defensive. It was all perfectly understandable because they both thought that Rose had met her violent end; it would surely all get better when they found out she was still alive (as a hostage, but still alive).

"You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind," the Doctor stated like a know-it-all, and Adam didn't appreciate being blamed on for her 'death.'

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam argued right back like a big boy that he was. The two were now standing up on their feet and were invading each other's personal bubble without popping it somehow, like two gangsters about to get into a fistfight.

"Oh, stop it," Virgo rolled her eyes from where she was sitting on the chair, not bothering to turn around. She didn't really care anymore, the want of getting out of the base had been flickering for the past two minutes. "If we start blaming people, it's only going to get ugly, not better. So zip it and sit down."

Before either Time Lord or human could say anything more (as an argument or agreement, no one knew), the TV suddenly turned on and everyone noticed it this time. On it, the Dalek and Rose were facing directly into the camera and both of them looked as stiff as a rock.

"Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies," the Dalek ordered calmly and Rose looked sheepish, as if ashamed of herself that she managed to do this to herself three times out of four trips. _Three_ times she was able to get herself into a different kind of trouble. _Three_!

Virgo scrambled off her chair and she and the Doctor raced over to the TV to get a closer look at Rose Tyler in order to fully believe she was right there on the screen. They both laughed in relief in joy, the threat of the Dalek was suddenly forgotten about even if it was sitting right next to the human.

"Oh, my God!" the Time Lady beamed as she felt the heavy sadness fade away and was replaced by happiness.

"You're alive!" the Doctor cheered, just as relieved as Virgo was that their companion was still standing on her two feet. Thank God they didn't have to do any explaining to Jackie! Celebrate!

"Can't get rid of me," Rose waved them off, but all three of them knew she was elated as well.

"We thought you were dead," the Doctor breathed.

"Open the bulkhead!" the Dalek brought them out of the celebration of being reunited and back into the cruel, cruel world of threats and death. Thank you, Dalek. We all needed you to do that.

"Don't do it!" Rose begged the Time Lords after she felt a little jab from the metal exterminator gun thing... what is that called?

"What use are emotions if you will not save your friend?"

And then there was even more silence, surprise surprise. The Doctor and Virgo locked eyes with each other and after a while, they both nodded; they don't need to speak out loud to know what the other was thinking of doing.

"I killed her once," the Doctor trudged over to the desk where the magic button that controlled the bulkhead was. "I can't do it again." He pressed it and the bulkhead rose up, allowing Rose (no pun intended) and the Dalek to continue their journey to the office at the same time the TV was switched off once again.

Van Statten, however, was not happy about this at all, "What do we do now, you bleeding heart?! What the hell do we do?"

"Kill it when it gets here," Adam suggested the obvious and most wanted thing to do; apparently he didn't remember that simple guns couldn't break through the forcefield.

"All the guns are useless and the alien weapons are in the vault," Goddard pointed out sadly with the shake of her head.

Adam then suddenly smiled sheepishly, "Only the catalogued ones." Goddard and Van Statten turned their heads sharply toward him with pointed looks while he merely shrugged innocently.

.l.l.l.

Adam showed the Time Lords his little workspace that he showed Rose earlier in the day, you know before all hell broke loose... Two boxes were placed on the ground and the aliens were going through both of them in search of a semi-functioning gun that could potentially damage the Dalek. If they could find a fully working one, then it would be Christmas dinner... twice.

So far it wasn't going well. The pieces of metal that looked like guns were either broken or something else entirely, like a hairdryer the Doctor found from a planet some billion light-years away. Even _that_ wasn't working!

"Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does, he wipes their memory," Adam explained to them with his sheepish smile still plastered on his face, now feeling like an idiot that he thought a hairdryer could be a potential gun. "I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."

"What, you in a fight?" the Doctor scoffed after discarding yet another broken piece of metal. "I'd like to see that."

"I could do!" Adam glared at him defensively.

"Ladies, please, you both look beautiful," Virgo laughed at their antics before she spotted something. "Oh, oh, I think we have a winner." She pulled out a piece of metal that looked very much like a gun out of all the suggestions that both boxes provided.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor beamed as she handed him the gun, loading it up. "Lock and load."

And now it was time for the grand finale of the Time War: two Time Lords versus one Dalek. Both sides are deadly, but even two Time Lords could be pest control for a Dalek.

.l.l.l.

Rose and her new Dalek companion were awkwardly standing/sitting in an elevator that was heading up to the office in _more_ silence, which was making this the quietest adventure she had ever had. They were about five floors apart from the destination, and Rose decided that a last minute plea could do the trick in saving more lives, maybe even Van Statten's if she was lucky.

"I'm begging you, don't kill them," Rose begged it with all her heart. If it spared her, then that meant it trusted her, right? Something of the sort? "You didn't kill me."

"But why not?" the Dalek questioned desperately and moved its eyestalk to stare at the first human it spared. "Why are you _alive_? My function is to _kill_! What am I? What am I...?"

If Rose wanted to continue the conversation, she couldn't because that was when the elevator arrived in the office; the one ding in her entire life that meant dreadful things were about to happen. She just hoped that Virgo wasn't in on the scene.

"Don't move," Rose warned everyone in the room... which was only Van Statten and Goddard. "Don't do anything. It's beginning to question itself." But that didn't stop the Dalek from making direct eye contact with Van Statten. It rolled forward slowly and menacingly, much like Virgo did with him.

"Van Statten," the Dalek spoke in a warning voice. "You... tortured... me. Why?"

"I... wanted to help you," Van Statten stuttered as he walked away from the Dalek and into the wall eventually. "I just... I don't know. I was trying to help. I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you... I wanted you better. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!"

"Then hear me talk now," the Dalek declared. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" Van Statten squeezed his eyes shut and prepared to die.

"Don't do it!" Rose bravely ran forward and placed her hand on the Dalek, the metal no longer hot. The eyestalk swirled around and nearly whacked her in the face if she hadn't dodged it. "Don't kill him! You don't have to do this anymore. There must be something else, not just killing! What else is there? What do you want?"

The eyestalk studied the human's face for a good three seconds before swirling back over to Van Statten (who winced), then back over to Rose with three words that made everything crystal clear, "I want freedom."

.l.l.l.

The duo walked through a hallway where they haven't been to and were no dead bodies; the Dalek was leading the way and all Rose could do was follow wherever it thought freedom might be. They kept on strolling until the Dalek suddenly stopped and pointed its metal exterminator wand and blasted a big hole in the roof. Rose winced from the blast, but was eventually in awe when she saw the rays of sunshine stream down into the hallway.

"You're out," she pointed to the hole and smiled softly at the warmth she now felt, no longer terrified of the monster next to her. "You made it... I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."

"How... does... it... feel?" the Dalek questioned with a raspy throat. The middle of the armor suddenly made a _poof_ noise and four corners of it opened up to reveal the creature beneath all that evil. Like Virgo had said, it looked like a small, mutated octopus sitting on a throne with controls all around its tentacles for movement.

At first Rose was a bit disgusted by it (it's only human nature), but eventually smiled a little when it reached out one tentacle to the sunlight rays and felt the warmth of it. It may be an evil, killing-machine (almost literally), but it could definitely be beautiful when it wanted to be.

"Get out of the way," the Doctor's voice suddenly boomed through the hallway. Rose turned around quickly and saw him and Virgo standing at the opposite end with the Time Lord holding a big gun. What was scary about this was that there was something in their eyes that was... not right. They weren't the Time Lords Rose knew and loved. "Rose, get out of the way now!"

"No," the human denied access and stood in front of the Dalek protectively. "I won't let you do this."

"I don't know if you noticed, but that thing is responsible for _so_ many deaths today," Virgo spat at her and took a step forward, looking absolutely deadly. "And that's just for human deaths. Who knows how many Time Lords it killed?! Now move it!"

"It's not the one pointing the gun at me," Rose shot back angrily. Couldn't they understand to forgive and take a moment to really see what the Dalek wanted all along? Not death, just to get away from torture sessions.

"I've got to do this," the Doctor contributed to the argument once again. "I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed our home, our people. We've got nothing but each other now!"

"Look at it," Rose shook her head and gestured to the vulnerable Dalek who was probably not even listening to what was happening around it.

The Doctor frowned and lowered his gun slightly to get a better view of it, "What's it doing?"

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants."

"It can't just-" Virgo began but was interrupted.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me," Rose listed off the good deeds the Dalek had been able to do today. "It's changing. What about you two? What the hell are _you_ changing into?"

"No," Virgo shook her head in determination. "No, no, no. I don't care if it's 'changing' or 'learning to be a proper lifeform.' It's still responsible for the destruction of a planet and hundreds of little humans." She ripped the gun out of the Doctor's hands and took matters into her own hands. She pointed the gun back at the Dalek, and Rose tensed up and moved back in front of the Dalek to protect it. "I'm not going to say it again. Rose Tyler, _move out of the way_ or, I swear, I will shoot you, too, if you don't."

"Virgo, put the gun down," the Doctor didn't try to grab the gun, but instead placed a hand on her shoulder. "It _is_ changing. Think about it. Do you want to be the one to finish off the Dalek race? To make them extinct?"

The Time Lady bit the inside of her cheek, but didn't lower the gun, "Five seconds to move. One."

"How would your mum feel about this if she could see you now? Would she want you to do this?"

"Two."

"If you do this, then you're making the final act in the Time War bloody and violent."

"... Three."

"Do you think you'll feel satisfied after this? You won't, so put the gun down and walk away while you still can."

The 'four' was on Virgo's lips, but the word didn't spill out. She had grown tears in her eyes when the Doctor mentioned her mother and one of them rolled down after he mentioned satisfaction. The last part was true, and she knew it. She _wouldn't_ feel relieved after killing a Dalek to end the Time War. She was always playing peacemaker when the Doctor or Rose started arguing with each other or with someone else, so how was it any different here?

The poor Time Lady started to sob and lowered the gun to the ground with a thump and the Doctor pulled her in for a hug, not blaming her for acting like a bloodthirsty assassin.

"Why do we survive?" the Dalek croaked weakly, its voice sounding different now that the armor was open.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied honestly as he comforted Virgo.

"I am the last of the Daleks."

"You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?"

"Something new... I'm sorry."

Rose frowned when she heard the apology, "Isn't that better?"

"Not for a Dalek," the Doctor shook his head sadly and looked away. He didn't want to see what was going to happen next, so he kissed the top of Virgo's head and rocked her from side to side, ironically like a mother holding a newborn infant.

"I can feel so many ideas," the Dalek would probably grimace physically if it had a human/Time Lord face to do so. "So much... _darkness_. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die."

The human instantly shook her head as a few tears of her own fell down her face, "I can't do that."

"This is not life," the Dalek insisted with horror, unable to believe this was how a human was able to live their life from day to day like this. "This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"

With a heavy heart, Rose sighed, "Do it."

"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah."

"So am I," the Dalek spoke its final words softly and seemed content that it had received an order after so long, even if it meant it would be its last one forever. Oh, this was pretty tragic. "Ex-ter-min-ate." The last 'exterminate' of the day didn't have the powerful boom in the voice; it was quiet.

Rose backed away from it as the middle doors - if you will - closed up and the Dalek rose up into the air a couple of feet and hovered there. The shiny balls were lifted off by an unseen force and circled the entire armor to create a forcefield. The armor itself imploded safely and disappeared in thin air, leaving Virgo's quiet sobs to be the only noise in the hallway.

It was over. The Time War was over. The Time Lords had finally won... and it yet it felt like a Pyrrhic victory.

.l.l.l.

About thirty minutes later to gather all the survivors together, Goddard was standing in front of Van Statten and a few guards. She nodded her head at them, and they grabbed Van Statten and dragged him through the corridor, the woman following behind them with a smile she was desperately trying to hide.

"What the hell are you doing?" Van Statten stared at Goddard in shock as he was being lugged away like baggage in an airport.

"200 personnel dead, and _all_ because of you, sir," Goddard stated calmly and smiled a bit when it was getting far too difficult to keep that smirk down. "Take him away, wipe his memory, and leave him by the road someplace."

"You can't do this to me," Van Statten struggled against his former guards' grip, but he was only a rich man compared to two muscle and armed men. Guess who won that struggle battle. "I am _Henry van Statten_!"

"And by tonight, Henry van Statten will be a homeless, brainless junkie living on the streets of San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento," Goddard turned on her heel, crossed her arms, and the satisfied smirk fully formed on her lips. "Somewhere beginning with an 'S.'"

.l.l.l.

The Doctor, Virgo, and Rose, were all back where they had started which was the musuem part of the entire base with the Cyberman head and Slitheen arm. It felt a little weird to be back with the TARDIS after a few hours of running around and critical thinking. It had started off as an innocent rescue mission for whatever had sent the signal and then escalated into a whole mess with the Time War and mutations and torture and all that fun stuff.

Virgo had emptied all of her tears and was as happy as she could possibly be. That was the first time in a long while that she actually cried over her family or her planet in general, and it felt very good. Relieving, even. Sometimes she just needs a little reminder on what else she needed to be now that everyone was dead, and the Doctor was the perfect person for the job.

"A little piece of home," the Doctor patted the TARDIS proudly with a small smile that could always be bigger. He wasn't as joyful as Virgo right now, but still a tiny bit happy. "Better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?" Rose asked them delicately, knowing it wasn't a friendly subject.

"We're the only ones left," the Doctor chuckled darkly. "We win... How about that?"

"The Dalek survived," Rose pointed out to try and shed some hope onto them. "Maybe some of your people did, too."

"No, there isn't anyone else," Virgo shook her head sadly, wishing that she was wrong for once. "We'd feel them in here." She pointed to her head where it felt horrifyingly silent besides a tiny, tiny buzz from the Doctor. Even if they were hugging the buzz was still too quiet for comfort.

"Well then," Rose clapped her hands and wagged her eyebrows playfully at them, "good thing I'm not going anywhere."

"Yeah," the Doctor laughed and fished out the key of his jacket pocket.

Adam 'Geniushead' suddenly came running from somewhere and over to the time-travelling trio, out of breath, "We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"Good, I'm glad," Virgo nodded in agreement of Goddard's decision - if she was the one who suggested it. "It's about time these people got a sense of things."

"I'll have to go back home...," Adam trailed off the more he thought about stepping into his mother's house for the first time in six months. It'd be a weird feeling... and he'd have to go back to having an ordinary job. Oh, that's disgusting!

"Better hurry up, then," the Doctor smirked at him. "Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen-hundred hours."

Rose bit her lip and tugged the Time Lords a little ways from Adam to tell them, "Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars..." She purposely ended her sentence like that to give the aliens an idea of what she wanted, hoping she didn't have to say it directly should Adam be eavesdropping on them.

"Tell him to go and stand outside, then," the Doctor shrugged, knowing what she was doing but didn't bother to ask Adam the golden question.

"He's all on his own, and he _did_ help."

"Rose, he abandoned you," Virgo gestured to the man himself as if it would explain everything. "How do we know he's not going to do that again?"

"So did you," Rose countered, "and how do I know _you're_ not going to do that to me again?"

"What're you talking about?" Adam furrowed his eyebrows while he watched the three of them converse. He may have been eavesdropping, but he had no clue at what they were talking about. Looks like his genius level just went down a notch. "We've got to leave!"

"Plus, he's a bit pretty," the Doctor ignored Adam.

"I hadn't noticed," Rose shrugged innocently but both Time Lords saw right through the lie. The two aliens met each other's eyes once more before agreeing silently on what to do.

"On your own head," the Doctor warned the blonde before unlocking the TARDIS and stepping inside, leaving the door open for Rose and Virgo. The door was still open and Adam was _still_ waiting for the trio to follow him.

"What're you doing?" the 'genius' asked in confusion. "She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in. Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Virgo? Rose?" He stepped inside the bigger-on-the-inside time machine and spaceship and before he could escape, the doors closed and dematerialized for the next adventure. Upwards and onwards, as they say.

A/N: I am an inch away from grabbing a gun and shooting myself in the head with it. I just found out I got a _-D_ in French and a _-C_ in World History. How I did this, I have _no idea!_ We only had one little quiz in History and it apparently determined my first grade for the 1st semester... quizzes are supposed to be worth 20% of my grade! And I have no idea how I got a stupid, unfair -D in French. I suck at languages as it is, I don't need a horrible grade in it! That is one letter away from an F, and I've never gotten an F before and I don't want to do that anytime soon. Ugh, this means I've got to study my butt off before the quiz starts on Friday for History. I am so mad at school!

Anyway, here's the chapter. Get the email for it, read it, enjoy it, and have a fantastic day for all the days you live. If I sound a bit harsh today, I apologize but I am not in a very happy mood like I usually am. :( I need a cupcake and Season 9 of Doctor Who. Make it September 19 already!


	19. Long Game: Care to Explain?

Long Game: Care to Explain?

The TARDIS materialized in a brightly-lit room with a very futuristic look to it. There was a faint vibrating sound that indicated the engines were working, a bit on the warm side, and a gate at the back that lead to a giant window to overlook a future Earth which was always appreciated. No one appeared to be in the same room, so that was actually a plus. The Time Lords didn't really feel like explaining how the TARDIS suddenly appeared because they wanted to let Rose have her fun in allowing her to be the smart one in front of Adam.

The Doctor and Rose quickly stepped out of the box while Virgo took the liberty in distracting Adam by showing him what some of the buttons on the console did. She threw some lies here and there without paying attention because she was actually a bit excited to see how Rose would make Adam believe that she knew more than she really did.

"So it's 200,000 and it's a spaceship," the Doctor whispered quickly to the blonde as she shut the door so Adam couldn't hear them. "No, wait a minute." He strained his ears when he heard the faint vibrating sound, then eventually nodded. "Space _station_ , and er... go and try that gate over there. Off you go."

"200,000?" Rose repeated to make sure she heard him correctly and reached for the door handle once more.

"200,000," the Doctor clarified.

"Right," Rose took a deep breath before pulling the doors open. "Adam? Virgo? Out you come."

Adam was the first to step out of the magic box and his jaw dropped all the way to the planet below. Since he was so mesmerized by the beauty of the year 200,000 architecture, Virgo had to push him out of the doorway so she could step outside. Once they were both outside, she closed the door and locked it tightly.

Virgo was still wearing her sweater without the Doctor raising suspicions, so her excuse for wearing it was apparently working. Now it was only a matter of time before she had to try something else... or tell him, which she could never have the guts to do. She could face a Dalek, hold a gun up to its eyestalk, and threaten to pull the trigger but she couldn't tell the Doctor one little secret that shouldn't have to be a secret to begin with.

Adam stumbled a bit from Virgo's light push and recoiled himself, then his face returned to its awe, "Oh, my God."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it," Rose patted his shoulder and quickly reviewed the information in her head for the second time.

"Where are we?"

"Good question," the blonde smirked and clasped her hands together, all-too prepared for the explaining. No wonder the Doctor liked to impress people, this was pretty fun! She couldn't wait for Adam's reaction! "Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year 200,000. If you listen... engines. We're on some sort of space station... Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!"

Rose pulled Adam by the arm and lead him over to the giant window that was past the giant gate while the Time Lords stayed behind with amused smiles. It was like the aliens were the parents and Rose was a big sister and trying to prove to younger brother Adam that she was better than him. The said aliens exchanged glances before going after the kiddies.

"Here we go!" Rose gestured to the giant Earth that was occupied by a lot more satellites than the 21st century. "And this is... I'll let the Doctor or Virgo describe it."

"Welcome to the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," Virgo explained with a proud smile.

"There it is, planet Earth at its height," the Doctor added on. "Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion."

"The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets along with a million species."

"And mankind is right in the middle."

After the Doctor said that sentence, there was a deep sigh followed by a thump sound from behind him, Virgo, and Rose. None of them bothered to turn around because they knew it had to be Adam fainting.

"He's _your_ boyfriend," the Doctor glanced at Rose, who had frowned in disappointment.

"Not anymore," the said blonde shook her head absently.

.l.l.l.

The group walked through the hallways of Satellite Five without spotting a single human or alien, which was a bit concerning. If this was an entire floor dedicated to engineers working on whatever it was that they did, the group would have spotted at least one person. That wasn't the case, mysteriously. Good news though, they were walking toward a lot of noise and the end of the hallway was getting closer and closer.

"Come on, Adam," the Doctor encouraged the new companion with enthusiasm. "Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent; culture, arts, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners-"

They reached the end of the hallway before a man rudely walked by them with a, "Out of the way!" and glared at them for good measure. Well, he definitely had somewhere to be if he was going to be rude to everyone he met on the 'streets.'

The end of the hallway turned out to be a giant lobby with a bunch of markets in the middle of the area and some attached to the walls with more room inside of them. Tables were circling the perimeter of markets in the middle, the humans taking their seats to eat their food. The ones in line for their own food looked quite angry and impatient, and the vendors weren't much better. They were rudely handing customers their food and snatching the money out of their hands like animals.

Rose raised an eyebrow in amusement, "Fine cuisine?"

"All right, why don't I handle the explaining from now on?" Virgo laughed with the shake of her head and playfully punched the Doctor's shoulder when she saw his pout. "How does that sound?"

"My watch must be wrong," the Doctor lifted his wrist where he - apparently - had a watch on. Surprise surprise. "No, it's fine. It's weird."

"That's what comes of showing off," Rose teased with a pointed look. "Your history's not as good as you thought it was."

"My history's perfect," the Doctor defended himself.

"I can tell you you've got the Bountiful Empire correct," Virgo pointed out with an amused smile. "Maybe the 'fine cuisine' bit is in another place in history."

Adam was hardly listening to their squabbling because he was so focused on all 'fine cuisine' laid out in front of him, "They're all human. What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question," the Doctor said sarcastically then turned back to the blondes to defend his history more. Before he opened his mouth, he realized just how much of a good question that was. "Actually, that _is_ a good question." He wrapped an arm around Adam and walked him more into the giant lobby. "Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

"No, I'm just a bit time sick," the 'genius' said blankly. Well, he was certainly learning the time travelling language fast.

"No, you just need a bit of grub," the Doctor insisted and walked him over to a food vendor next to the giant line that reached all the way to the back of the lobby. "Oi mate - how much is a kronkburger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart," the chef sneered at him before returning back to a hot stove. "Now join the queue."

"I hope you actually have money before you thought about asking that question," Virgo said before walking to a futuristic version of an ATM. The Doctor never carried money on him, so she really didn't need to hear his denial in it.

"Well...," the Doctor began before Rose sighed and pulled him over to where Virgo was heading.

The Time Lady took out her sonic screwdriver (she really made sure she knew where it was this time) and flashed it at the ATM screen. There was a bunch of gibberish words piling over each other before it finally said a nice 'Thank you' and a metal bar dropped into the little open slot where people normally took their money from.

"Here you go," Virgo handed the 'money' to Adam. "Should be enough to keep you busy."

Adam took it and examined it in curiosity, "How does it work?"

"Go and find out," the Doctor gestured to the entire room as if it was obvious of what he had to do. "Stop nagging us. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double, and end up kissing complete strangers... Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it." The Doctor gently pushed Adam toward the crowds then turned to Rose. "Off you go, then. Your first date."

"You're going to get a smack, you are," Rose giggled at him then wrapped her arm around Virgo's.

The human might as well get it over with. Aside from the fact that she had been granted the responsibility to make sure Adam doesn't do anything too stupid to get him arrested, a moment away from the Doctor equals privacy. Adam could just be told to buy a... "kronkburger"... or a simple water and that could keep him busy. Remember, the lines were insanely long and horrid.

"Why don't you go have a little look around while Virgo and I could get some girl bonding time done," Rose suggested as casually as possible so she wouldn't raise the Doctor's suspicions (at the very least). "We'll just be sitting at the tables."

The Doctor looked like he was about to object to the situation, but Virgo opened her mouth before the Time Lord could get a word out from his.

"I'd actually like that," the Time Lady agreed with a small smile. "Yeah, I'd like a little break from moving around a lot right now. The museum was emotionally draining and I haven't had a nap in a while." She turned to the Doctor and noted his disappointment. "If you see anything that's a big no-no, call us over. Tell you what, go over to those people." She pointed to two women in the back. One of them was wearing a black suit and the other a purple blouse with dress pants. "They look like they own the place. Have fun!"

Virgo waved at the Doctor before she allowed Rose to pull her away and sit over at the tables. The Time Lord sighed unhappily but eventually took Virgo's advice to talk to the fancy women in the back.

The Doctor stood behind the women and spoke, "Er, this is going to sound daft... but can you tell me where I am?"

The one in the black suit looked at him as though he was joking, "Floor 139. Could they write it any bigger?" She gestured her hand to three giant, red numbers that were hanging out on the wall.

"Floor 139 of what?" the Doctor pressed on.

"Must've been hell of a party," she chuckled softly and secretly wished that she could have been where the Doctor had 'partied' out so much as to forget where he was. She could really use that right now. She's been really stressed out because of her dire desperation of getting a promotion and sailing off to Floor 500 and say goodbye to annoying Suki.

"You're on Satellite Five," speak of the devil, the purple bloused woman informed the Doctor with a much kinder attitude than her colleague.

"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor furrowed his brows when he couldn't recall a 'Satellite Five' in the history books. Hopefully it was one of those satellites that wasn't important enough to create something big and important.

"Come on, how could you get onboard without knowing where you are?" the black suit woman scoffed in disbelief.

"Look at me, I'm stupid," the Doctor's grin reached both ears - which are laughably large - and pointed to himself.

"Hold on, wait a minute," Suki held up her hand and studied the Doctor closely. For a moment there, he thought she recognized him from his future self, but from the way her eyes weren't sparkling of recognition, he mentally sighed in relief. "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

The Doctor exaggeratingly groaned and reached for his psychic paper, "You've got me. Well done."

He suddenly frowned when he couldn't feel the paper in its normal place, so he dug around his pockets until he eventually found it in his back pocket. He knew he didn't place it there, so who... The Doctor then chuckled with the shake of his head. Oh, Virgo!

"You're too clever for me," the Time Lord presented the psychic paper briefly and the black suit woman and Suki squinted their eyes to study it.

"We were warned about this in basic training," Suki whispered quickly to the black suit woman. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

The black suit woman had totally zoned her out, but when she said 'promotion,' the woman smirked confidently and clasped her hands together, "Right, fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500, I'll do anything."

"Why, what happens on Floor 500?" the Doctor questioned his prey some more.

"The walls are made of gold," the black suit woman said before nudging his arm. "And you should know, _Mister Management_. So, this is what we do." She and Suki lead the alien over to a few monitors stuck to the walls that was currently broadcasting the news for not just Satellite Five but to the whole Earth as well. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane 77 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant."

"I get it," the Doctor nodded in understanding. "You broadcast the news."

" _We_ are the news," the black suit woman corrected. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it. 600 channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere."

.l.l.l.

Little did the Doctor, Suki, and the black suit woman know, they were being watched by a man with white, spiky hair and extremely pale skin in some office. He wasn't watching them _directly_ but they were on a screen and their voices were background noise. He was pacing around the small office in thought because something was bothering him and it had been bothering him for quite awhile now, and he didn't like the feeling.

The pale man eventually stopped pacing to acknowledge the feeling in his gut to the rest of crew and the big man upstairs. The crew weren't even a proper crew. They looked like freezing zombies controlling the screens with a handprint cushion device on the desk. They were seated in a row and were about ten to fifteen of them.

"Something... is wrong," the pale man spoke slowly. "Something... fictional." He turned around and snapped his fingers and pointed at the screen that held the black suit woman, Suki, and the Doctor chattering away. "Those people."

" _Nothing happens in the whole Human Empire without it going through us_ ," the black suit woman was still explaining the news to the Doctor.

"Security check," the pale man instructed one of the zombie crew members. "Go deep."

.l.l.l.

Back down in the lobby, or Floor 139, the two blondes had taken their seats at a random table while Adam was out fetching a drink. Since he was still impressed and amazed with everything, it was fairly easy for Rose to convince him to wait in a long line - the longest line here and she made sure about that.

"So...," Rose trailed off awkwardly, unsure how to bring up the subject that had been on her mind for a few days now. She suddenly glanced at Virgo when the Time Lady started to chuckle a little. "What?"

"Sorry, it's just... I wonder if he found the psychic paper," the Time Lady shook her head in amusement.

"Right," Rose could only nod and pretend she knew exactly what her friend was talking about. She had a hunch already of what she could mean but she really didn't care about that right now, nor did she need to get distracted by it. She had to focus because she might not get this chance again.

The human had made a few attempts at trying to locate the Time Lady in the TARDIS, but it was like the corridors got longer and forced her to turn at a lot of corners. She ended up in the swimming pool/library twice trying to show Adam around the the TARDIS!

"Do you remember... when we were fighting the Slitheen?" Rose started off broadly and slowly, and just worked from whatever came out from her mouth. "You were saying how Harriet Jones was your favourite Prime Minister and I was missing for a year."

"'Course I do," Virgo assured her calmly, but Rose could see worry in her eyes. "Not exactly something to forget easily. Why? Is it about you and Mister Mickey? Your mother?"

"Not really," the human pursued her lips. "It's kind of about Mum, but it's mainly about... well, you."

"Okay, go on," Virgo made a 'continue what you're saying' motion with her hands. "I don't want to play a guessing game. Tell me what's on your mind and maybe I can give you a bit of advice."

"Er, Mum was having the little 'welcome to Earth' party. The Doctor and I went outside because he was leaving and I was curious about where he was going. After that I went back home because we both know where he was going, and when I got there... I heard this crying sound. I had a little peak and I saw you with Mum..."

Instead of getting a furious Time Lady (Rose's expectation), Virgo suddenly beamed happily and pulled the companion into a tight hug. Rose didn't hug back right away because she was shocked, and before she could wrap her arms around the Time Lady, she pulled away with a smile.

"Thank you!" Virgo laughed and patted Rose's shoulder for good measure. "Thank God it was only you. I have been stressing out so much that it was the Doctor at the door and he wouldn't talk to me about it and I was too much of a coward to confront him. You have just saved my life!"

"You're not mad at me?"

"A bit, but you're only human," Virgo waved her off. When she had seen the door, she did feel angry that someone had been eavesdropping on a private conversation when they shouldn't have been. She had gotten the sensation that someone was staring at her but had ignored it because she was talking to Jackie and thought she was just being paranoid. However after a while sulking in the bathroom, she formed the conclusion that maybe it was the Doctor and everything would be a piece of cake after that.

"Good," Rose smiled in relief before turning serious once more. "It's not... I mean, it's not his... right? It's not the Doctor's?"

Virgo's cheery attitude suddenly started to fade away and a frown was plastered on her face in five seconds, "No... Sometimes I wish he was the father rather than the Burglar."

"Why?" Rose asked softly. "... Sorry, can I ask you that? 'Cos back there with Mum you were-"

"No, it's fine," Virgo shook her head absently and stared into space. "I've already told Jackie about a few minor details about him, but not everything. She may be your mother, but I can hardly trust her with this information. I'm honestly still surprised that she hasn't spilled the beans to the Doctor yet." She took a deep breath. "If I'm going to tell you this, then you need to promise me. When I say promise, I don't mean like I'm telling you I have a crush on someone and don't tell the crush that I said that about him or her, I really mean that you have to _promise me_ that you won't tell the Doctor about this. It's my responsibility and you don't need to get into the mess. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yeah, don't worry," Rose promised completely in a serious tone. "I won't tell him."

"Thank you," Virgo thanked her then began her story. "It started when I was eight-years old..."

.l.l.l.

 _A little girl with light brown hair in pigtails, dark brown eyes, freckles, and a dark red robe was sitting on the grass a little ways away from her house on an orange planet called Gallifrey. Her eyes were twinkling from the stars in the night sky and was studying one of the stars very closely. It was the largest one in the sky where you could actually make out a few minor details but that was about it._

 _She was humming a nursery rhyme her mother had taught her three years ago about the Time Lords peacefully ruling the universe. She didn't really like the idea of a single ruler ruling the universe, but it was still a good tune and that was the only reason why she was humming it._

 _Studying the single star and humming was the little girl's distraction from the upcoming visit to the Untempered Schism. She was quite frightened of the idea of going mad by simply staring at a swirl of colors into infinity. At the least, she hoped she would be one of the ones that ran away; it'd be impressive if she'd be one of the inspired, but she doubted it. You'd have to be really special to become inspired._

 _The distraction was working so well that she nearly missed someone telling her, "Be quiet."_

 _The little girl blinked away her daze and turned her head to the source of the voice. It was a little boy about her age with black hair and light green eyes; the eyes were so bright they almost lit up his face. He was looking annoyed while standing ten feet away from her._

" _You're humming telepathically, too," the boy grumbled angrily. "Everyone within Arcadia can hear you and it's annoying, so stop." And with that, he turned on his heel and walked down the hill toward the group of houses, some having their lights on and others staying in the shadows of the night._

" _Rude," the little girl, Falavia (in the future, known as Virgo), huffed under her breath. Just to annoy the little boy even further, she hummed as loud as she could at him and him only while also doing it aloud, too. It was also rude, but she was a child. You're supposed to be rude as a child._

.l.l.l.

Rose snorted in amusement after Virgo told her about the humming.

"You evil girl," the human said sarcastically and the Time Lady burst out laughing. "I would have had a nice little argument with him. And I'd win."

"Of course you would," Virgo agreed after her laugh. "But yeah, that was when I met him. We were classmates in the Academy but we had completely forgotten who each other was to the other person. That moment was insignificant to our brains that we had just forgotten. We connected the dots when we talked about our past incarnations... which was very interesting and disturbing at the same time."

"Incarnations?" Rose furrowed her eyebrows at the word. "How'd you mean incarnations?"

"I'll tell you later," Virgo dismissed the subject with hope that she would forget about it. "So then time moves forward and I was 300-years old, and the naming ceremony comes along. It's when we pick our own titles. I chose 'Virgo' and the Doctor, well, chose 'Doctor.' I chose mine because it's my favourite constellation and it means 'maiden' or 'virgin.' I didn't like the idea of settling down in a rubbish house filled with children and a lousy husband, so even my own title was a promise to that; I was very passionate about it.

"I had actually gotten away with it for so many centuries, and even when the Time War began and when some Time Lords were desperate to get a spouse so they could keep the Time Lords coming, I hadn't had any kids or got married. I was the Queen Elizabeth I of Gallifrey.

"Then... the Burglar came along because he couldn't find anyone else and I apparently had a great family history. He asked me to marry him, I said no because that was my purpose that I created, but he was always so persistent. He bribed me, he threatened me, then he nearly killed a passing neighbour just because I refused to be his wife. I got scared... so I finally accepted."

"How long did he threaten you?" Rose asked in concern.

"Ooh," Virgo closed her eyes in concentration. "About two years? Three? One? Somewhere along those lines. It was a long time ago. I was in my 750's."

"Yeah, 'cos that's young," Rose muttered and rolled her eyes. "Then after you got married, I assume you... you know."

The Time Lady swallowed hard and crossed her arms, "All the time. He just wanted a kid so badly and I didn't want one... he just kept trying and trying... Then the Time War began and just before the Doctor time locked the whole war, I managed to run away, find him, and then we're in the present."

"Wow," Rose breathed in amazement. "I can't imagine going through that. How far along are you?"

"Just about three months," Virgo informed her. "A Time Lord pregnancy typically lasts about a year and three months, so I'm not even close... and as for right now that's good."

"You know you need to tell him."

"And I will! As soon as he's gotten better with how he deals with enemies and stops killing them, then I'll tell him. Right now he's not ready to know that I'm pregnant because we're both still mourning our planet, and I don't think we'll ever stop mourning it. I still need to figure out this whole parenting thing; avoiding it for 800 years, there's bound to be a consequence about not knowing how to raise a child."

"Just promise me that you'll tell the Doctor soon," Rose took hold of Virgo's hand with a squeeze. "I'm promising not to tell him, now you have to promise you'll tell him eventually. If I can confront you about this, then you can with the Doctor. I'll even help you if you need it. All right?"

Virgo agreed with a hesitant nod before something caught her eye, "Your boyfriend's coming over here."

"He's not my boyfriend," Rose rolled her eyes and sat up straighter in her chair in preparation for the arrival of Adam. "He's my _companion_."

A/N: Rose has finally gathered her wits and confronted Virgo, so we're making progress. All that's left is to find Jack Harkness *squeal* and at some point tell the Doctor. Who will come first, I wonder... I do! :)

I didn't write too far into this episode because I wanted it to be mainly about Rose confronting our OC along with some backstory - which includes her nickname when she was a kid. I'm a bit hesitant about this chapter, so please nice criticism if you don't like it. Thank you :)

I am apparently a messenger between my study hall teacher and my PE teacher. We basically have a thirty minute study hall time between 2nd and 3rd period. I have PE for 3rd period, so we have to go into a classroom for study hall because we can't all be sitting on the ground the entire time. Study hall teacher has gone into the habit of taking roll and giving me a posted note to tell the PE teacher who's here and who's not. I was offered a donut because they both appreciated me for being a loyal messenger, but I refused it because I hardly think I deserve it. I'm just handing a posted note in each day, don't see how it's much appreciated.

Thank you for all the reviews and favorites and follows! Been getting a lot of them recently and I hope they keep coming because it makes me feel happy :D 3


	20. Long Game: Golden Walls

Long Game: Golden Walls

Adam approached the table where the blondes were sitting at and sat down next to Rose, holding three foam cups with green, blue, and yellow straws poking out from the tiny holes. He gave two of them to Rose and Virgo and kept the green-strawed one for himself.

The menu was completely different from the average 21st century one. He had assumed that a kronkburger was another word for a ham or cheeseburger, but when he asked the chef what it was, he found out it was a gross combination of goat and crocodile meats slammed into a bun with some cheese and pickles. Adam nearly vomited at this and simply asked if they had some slushies, and that was what he gave the girls just now.

"This is called Zaphic," Adam told the girls as Virgo took a sip and Rose eyeing her cup suspiciously. "It's like a, er, Slush Puppy."

"What flavour?" Rose questioned her 'companion,' but Virgo beat him to it.

"It's just beef," the Time Lady shrugged as if beef was a common flavor for drinks. "You probably won't like it since you're not used to this flavour, but it's nice."

"Oh, my God," Adam widened his eyes and rested his head on his hands in more shock. He didn't really get the chance to tell the chef what flavor he wanted the slushies; the chef left to make them the moment he asked for 'Zaphic' and came back about fifteen minutes later. "It's like everything's gone; home, family, everything."

The memory of seeing aliens besides the Time Lords in Platform One danced around in Rose's eyes, so she immediately understood what the "genius" was going through. To make him feel better, she took out her phone and placed it on the table close to Adam.

"This helps," she explained to him. "Virgo and the Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. Who's back home, your mum and dad?"

"Yeah," Adam picked up the phone and studied it.

"Phone them up."

The 'genius' eyed her oddly, "But that's 198,000 years ago."

"Time travel, Adam," Virgo rolled her eyes after taking another sip. "We just time travelled and now you're concerned with phoning your parents in the correct time period?"

Adam merely shrugged, "Is there a code for planet Earth?"

"Just dial," Virgo groaned. Why couldn't he be more like Rose, not asking too many questions and just do as you're told... besides the wandering off bit? Seriously, that was getting to be a bit of a problem with her.

Adam hesitated but eventually dialed up the house phone number and put the phone up to his ear, eyes widening when he heard it was actually ringing. After a few moments of constant ringing noises, the voicemail kicked in.

" _I'm sorry we're not in_ ," Adam's mother's digital voice spoke. " _Please leave a message. Thanks, bye._ "

"It's er...," Adam stuttered as he tried to get over the shock that the phone was actually working. "... Hi. It's me. I've sort of... gone travelling. I met these people and we've gone travelling together. But, er... I'm fine, and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye." He hung up the phone, unaware that his dog had trotted into the room where the house phone was because it heard its master's voice.

He kept the phone in his hand with an impressed smile on his face, "That is so..."

Before he could come up with a word to describe how he was feeling, an alarm suddenly sounded throughout Floor 139 and customers started to leave and vendors closed up their shops tightly. The trio watched everyone leave, and while they weren't concerned about where everyone was going, they were a bit confused as to why they were leaving. Fire alarm? Drill? It could be a number of things.

The Doctor came running from around the corner. Instead of walking over to the trio like a proper, human gentleman, he just shouted at them, "Oi! You three! Over here!"

The trio saw no fault in seeing what the little Time Lord was up to, so everyone got up from the table and jogged over to him. Adam put Rose's phone in his pocket as an idea started to form in his head - of course, it's a genius one because he was a "genius," too.

.l.l.l.

The pale man a few hundred floors up was looking at the screen behind the zombie workers, awaiting for the computer to tell him what was wrong with the Doctor, Black-Suit woman, and Suki. He had been waiting for awhile now and that was good because that was a sign that the computer was really searching deeply.

" _Security check cleared_ ," the computer announced and the pale man's confident smile faltered.

"No, something's _wrong_ ," he insisted with the roll of his eyes. "I can taste it. A tiny little shift in the information. Someone down there shouldn't be here." He rested his hands on the chairs where two zombie crew members were sitting on and leaned on them. "Double check. Triple check. Follow them."

.l.l.l.

Rose, Adam, Virgo, and the Doctor followed Black-Suit woman and Suki into a completely white room. The time travellers were standing on the top of a small staircase by the door to watch what would be played out for them. There was a chair that looked very comfortable to sit on on a platform and Black-Suit woman was standing in front of it. Below the platform was a circle of people, including Suki, sitting around on cushions, the whole thing looked like it was a giant ritual for some weird religion.

"Now, everybody behave," Black-Suit woman directed her little group. "We have a management inspection." She turned her head to the Doctor, still thinking he was a manager and he could promote her if he liked her. "How do you want it, by the book?"

Having no idea what she was talking about, the Doctor merely smiled and played along, "Right from scratch, thanks."

"Okay," Black-Suit woman nodded and turned back to her group for more directions. "So ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided, or robot - my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a 'C' in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please... do." The people at the staircase exchanged glances with each other. "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias; that's company policy."

"Actually, it's the law," Suki interrupted knowingly.

"Yes, thank you, Suki," Cathica closed her eyes in irritation before opening them back up. "Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." She sat in the chair behind her and gazed up at the circular roof - if you will - with many wires pointed right where her forehead was. "And... engage safety."

The seven people around the chair placed their hands on circular, soft hand prints while the walls lit up, section by section, with a white light. Cathica snapped her fingers to open up a hole in her forehead that showed her brain. Considering that if you could see your brain, you should probably be dead... but this is the future! Science has moved on!

"And three, two... and spike," Cathica commanded. A beam of light shot through the wire gun and directly into her head, causing her to gasp a little but quickly calmed down and simply laid there.

The Doctor stepped down the steps and walked around the edges of the room to observe everything while Virgo knelt beside one of the people sitting on the cushions and snapped her fingers next to their ears, getting no reaction from them.

"Compressed information, streaming into her," the Doctor mused. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius," Rose said. She was mainly focusing on the fact that Cathica's brain was exposed and was letting a light beam shine on it.

"Her head would blow up if she remembered anything," Virgo disagreed with her statement. Cathica couldn't be a genius _this_ way, but the girl might know some stuff and could be a proper genius, unlike Adam over here. "There's too much information for a human brain to process to keep it tucked away in there. The moment she closes her head, it's all forgotten about."

"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Rose gestured to the seven servants that were bowing down to their news queen.

"They've got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit 600 channels," the Doctor explained. "Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now _that's_ what I call power."

.l.l.l.

The computer was once again looking for an error it might have made while scanning the Doctor, Cathica, and Suki since the pale man was so convinced that there was something off about the three of them. Even the computer knew not to think that the pale man might be wrong, himself.

" _Analysis confirmed_ ," it spoke which drew the pale man's attention to it. " _Security breach_."

"I knew it!" the pale man cheered and mentally patted himself on the back for being right once again, right in front of his boss. "Which one? It's someone inside that room. Which one?"

" _Isolating breach_ ," the computer said and the pale man watched the camera look around the room in circles until it could find the chosen candidate.

"Come on, show me," the pale man urged, in a hurry. "Who is it?"

.l.l.l.

"You all right?" Rose asked Adam after she saw him staring at Cathica like his whole world had turned upside down. She was used to this because after spending what was probably a month or two in a blue box that's bigger on the inside that can travel through time and space with two aliens that were the last of their kind and battle the bad aliens for the Earth's safety. Nothing was really surprising anymore, especially after Van Statten's museum.

"I can see her brain," Adam managed to choke out.

"Do you want to get out?" Rose gestured to the open door; it was open so that anyone could leave at anytime for bathroom or important purposes. Do people still use the bathroom excuse in schools? That'd be nice to know, a simple thing that would never change.

"No, no," Adam chuckled what seemed to be at her, but it was more directed to himself. "This technology... it's amazing."

"This technology is wrong," the Doctor said sternly, breaking Adam's fascinated stare. He and Virgo were back on the staircase after a few circles around the room, and that was enough time to work out why Satellite Five wasn't in the history books; this was never supposed to happen in the first place.

Rose smirked at this statement, "Trouble?"

"Indeed," Virgo shared the human's smirk. "It's brilliant, isn't it?"

Suki suddenly twitched and her blank face transformed into a frown, but quickly covered it up unconsciously. Unfortunately, this was caught by a certain pale man a few hundred stories up.

.l.l.l.

The computer zoomed in on Suki and the pale man celebrated with a little hop and a clap.

"That's it!" he exclaimed. "Oh yes, she's the liar! Intercept and scan. Gotcha."

.l.l.l.

Suki seemed to have felt the computer scan her because she suddenly jumped awake from her dream state and quickly lifted her hands off the hand cushion things. Since she disconnected herself, the other six people were forced to withdraw as well and Cathica had to close her forehead.

"Come off it, Suki," Cathica scolded her as if Suki was a child and she was the older sister. "I wasn't even halfway! What was that for?" Rude, Cathica, rude.

"Sorry, it must've been a glitch," Suki rubbed her wrists, puzzled at why that happened to only her and not to anyone else.

.l.l.l.

"Her information's been tampered with," the pale man quickly skimmed through the information about Suki on the computer and even studied the official photo of her. "There's a second biography hidden underneath."

There was suddenly a growl from the ceiling and it seemed to be a common occurrence because the pale man didn't look shocked; he was acting more like a slave hurrying to take orders from his master to avoid terrible consequences... and that metaphor wasn't as far off than it looks.

"Yes, sir," the pale man nodded politely at whatever was on the ceiling. "Absolutely, sir. Yes, well, her data was encrypted, so there's no way we could have found her sooner." The thing growled even more rudely at him. "I'm sorry, I... Yes, sorry, sir. Absolutely." He turned back to the zombie crew. "Get her up here. Now."

.l.l.l.

Before Cathica could squabble around with her frustratingly annoying (to her, anyway) colleague, a projection suddenly appeared on the wall in front of the chair with the word 'Promotion' as the heading for the presentation. Immediately, Cathica turned to the projection with a hopeful expression and muttered to herself.

"Come on," she chanted with her eyes closed. "This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name. Say my name. Say my name." The time travelling group exchanged concerned glances with each other, seriously worried that Cathica was taking the job way too seriously for her own good. The said woman opened her eyes to only have her dream crushed temporarily.

" _Promotion for... Suki Macrae Cantrell_ ," someone spoke over the projection and Suki gasped and stood up. " _Please proceed to Floor 500_."

"I don't believe it," Suki stared at the now blande wall with wide, shocked eyes while Cathica glared daggers at her. "Floor 500..."

"How the hell did you manage that?!" Cathica hollered at her with steam coming out of her ears. "I'm above you!"

"I don't know," Suki ignored her anger and actually started to chuckle softly. "I just applied on the off chance... and they've said yes!"

"That's so not fair," Cathica grumbled and imagined herself being Suki's executioner to chop her head off. That did make her feel a little better, but since she couldn't do it she got upset all over again. "I've been applying for Floor 500 for three years."

"What's so special about Floor 500?" Virgo quietly asked the Doctor, speaking for the other two companions as well.

"'The walls are made of gold,'" the Doctor quoted grimly and stared at the wall where the projection was in puzzlement. He doubted that Satellite Five would have enough funds to have an entire room full of gold and risk people messing up the shininess and lower the worth of it. It didn't settle right with him and that seemed to carry over onto Virgo, Rose, and maybe even Adam if he was a 'genius.'

.l.l.l.

A little while later, the time travelling group followed Suki, who was dragging along Cathica, to an elevator in the main room of Floor 139. The two girls were sharing one last hug before Suki would have to carry her bags into the elevator and go on a rather long ride all the way up to the top floor. Suki seemed to look saddened but excited if not a bit nervous while Cathica was forced to wear a smile. Bright side for Cathica: she'd never have to see Suki's face around here again; she could get some more work done in peace.

The time travelling group were off to the side with nothing else to do but to watch the goodbye and hope that Suki would be okay going up to Floor 500. If there were going to be some bad goons in the elevator to drag poor Suki in, they were there to help stop it with an awful lot of running.

"Cathica, I'm going to miss you," Suki squeezed Cathica into one final hug before pulling away to leave her hands on Cathica's shoulders. "Floor 500." Suki patted her hands on the shoulders before running over to the Doctor. "Thank you."

"I didn't do anything," the Doctor furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

Suki shrugged gleefully, "Well, you're my lucky charm."

"All right," the Doctor nodded in approval and opened his arms out for a big hug. "I'll hug anyone." Suki giggled and filled the space between the two and shared a lovely hug.

"Suki, are you going to be okay?" Virgo stepped behind the Doctor to get a view of the woman's face. "I mean, do you seriously want to go up hundreds of floors just for a rubbish promotion? Do you know anything at all about this special floor?"

"The walls are made of gold!" Suki pulled away from the Doctor and squealed excitedly. "Isn't that worth it?"

"Gold can mean a lot of things," Virgo stated seriously. "'The walls are made of gold' may not be as literal as you think it is. Gold can represent prizes to flaunt off to people, and it could be bad prizes. Don't you want to stay in familiar surroundings?"

"Not really, no," Suki didn't seem fazed at the idea of a trap. "I'll be fine and I'm sure the work will be brilliant!" To prove that Suki wanted to go on her own free will, she pulled the Time Lady into a hug.

Rose and Adam were off to the side, quietly conversing with each other; it wasn't about Floor 500 but about Cathica's brain opener. Adam was pretty freaked out about it despite the fact that he said that the technology in the future was stunning.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Rose nudged his arm with a look that said 'what are you so freaked out about?'

"What, with the head thing?" Adam scoffed and gestured to his own head and nearly vomited when he remembered seeing Cathica's brain. That was going to be a very hard image to take out of his head. Maybe the TARDIS or this place had some temporary memory wipe, a wipe that'll take away five or ten minutes. That'd be really convenient right now.

"Yeah, well, she's closed it now," Rose reassured him.

"Yeah, but...," Adam sighed when he realized Rose didn't understand at all what he was feeling. She might have had a long time ago but she had lost all that now. "It's everything. It freaks me out. And I just need to... If I could just cool down, sort of... acclimatise."

"How do you mean?" Rose raised an eyebrow at what he was trying to say. Okay, so maybe Adam wasn't ready for this specific time period... but they could go back in time after this, right? They could go somewhere where he would actually have a clue of what was what, like the Victorian or Edwardian era, or maybe even the Elizabethan era. She was sure Adam would be delighted to see Shakespeare.

"Maybe I could just go and sit on the observation deck," Adam told her. "Would that be all right? Soak it in, you know. Pretend I'm a citizen of the year 200,000."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Rose took a step toward him, but Adam moved away from her.

"No, no, you stick with the Doctor and Virgo," Adam shook his head sadly. "You'd rather be with them. It's going to take a better man than me to get between you three." Rose pursued her lips but didn't deny that this wasn't true. Adam awkwardly rocked on his heels. "Anyway, I'll be on the deck."

He turned to leave, but Rose called him back and took off her TARDIS key necklace.

"Here you go," she handed it to him. "Take the TARDIS key. You know, just in case it gets a bit too much."

"Yeah, like it's not weird in there," Adam laughed half-heartedly before making his big exit into a speedwalk toward the many corridors. Rose watched him go with saddened eyes before making her way back to the Time Lords, Suki, and Cathica.

"Oh, my God, I've got to go!" Suki suddenly gasped after forcing herself to stop rambling about how excited she was for the new job. She grabbed her luggage and purse and hurried over to the elevator with the open doors. "I can't keep them waiting, I'm sorry." She stepped into the elevator and the doors started to close as the Time Lords and Cathica waved goodbye to her. The aliens' farewell was kind while Cathica was being more 'good riddance.' "Say goodbye to Steve for me! Bye!"

The doors shut and the elevator began its journey up to Floor 500.

"Good riddance," Cathica glared at the doors in fury.

"You're talking like you'll never see her again," the Doctor frowned at her. "She's only going upstairs."

"We won't," Cathica countered with a straight face. "Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back."

The Doctor and Virgo stared at her in shock before looking back at the elevator where they last saw Suki, now knowing that something was definitely wrong. Saying what Cathica said was the same thing as going into a black hole... they could only hope it wasn't as bad as it sounded.

Cathica walked away and went over to the cafeteria area, no longer wanting to be reminded that someone lower than her had gotten a promotion. Apparently she wanted a promotion so badly she was willing to sacrifice her connection to her friends just to see the golden walls. The time travelling trio followed her with many unanswered questions that were about to get answers sooner or later.

"What about you?" Virgo asked her in concern. "Have you been up there? Do you know for certain that the walls are golden?"

"I can't," Cathica stared at her oddly. Didn't she just say when you go to that floor you never come back? If she went up there, would she be here talking to them? "You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to Floor 500 except for the chosen few."

.l.l.l.

Suki paced around in the elevator, fiddling with her hands anxiously as she watched the numbers go up to the 490's and eventually stood still when it was nearing close to 500. Once the numbers turned into that specific number, there was a _ding!_ and the elevators opened up to reveal... a frosty, snowy room.

It wasn't shiny or gold in the slightest... liars.

Suki froze where she was and processed what in front of her. She wasn't exactly expecting the _entire_ floor to be covered with wonderful gold, but frost was something she wasn't really expecting to find. It wasn't at the perfect temperature or the perfect paradise; it was quite freezing in here, actually, hence the frost.

She forced herself out of shock and opened up her bag to get a flashlight from it and turned it on because it was on the dark side. She wasn't in complete darkness, but she couldn't see the tiny details on the ground.

She walked out of the elevator without her bags and as soon as she was in the room, the doors closed loudly and caused her to jump from the sudden sound. She took a deep breath to calm down and slowly walked around to investigate her new home... her new arctic home. It was _really_ cold.

Suki moved her flashlight around until she came across a circular room covered with old, plastic curtains, so she did what anyone else would do and opened them up to reveal what looked like the same circular room in Floor 139. She swallowed hard and walked up to the worn-out chair because she saw a figure resting their hands on the handles. The figure didn't seem to hear her so she thought he/she must be sleeping... until she pulled back their head and found it to be a decayed skull.

She screamed in terror and her flashlight decided to shine at some more skeletons around the perimeter of the chair. She scrambled out of the room with sickness in her stomach, hoping that was the last time she would ever come into contact with something that was dead. If dissecting frogs in biology wasn't bad enough, this made it up to the #1 grossest thing she had ever touched.

A door suddenly opened with a calming light coming out from it and Suki noticed it immediately. The doorway may look innocent, she was certain that whatever was behind that door was responsible for the bodies in the circular room. Having nowhere else to go but forward, Suki hesitantly stalked toward it.

She found herself to be in the office area where the pale man worked with his zombie crew. He was standing near the back of the room facing her, as if he was expecting her to come inside. Suki glanced at the zombie crew members before going up the small stairway up to the pale man's level.

"Who're you?" she questioned him unsurely.

"I'm the Editor," the pale man replied to her with his hands clasping each other on his chest.

"What's happening?" Suki asked him as calmly as she could possibly be and turned her head back over to the doorway where she entered. "There are bodies out there. What's going on?"

The Editor simply ignored her and looked like he had been through this a million times now, "While we're asking questions, would you please confirm your name?" He snapped his fingers and a holo-projection of Suki's interview for Satellite Five showed up between the two of them.

" _My name is Suki Macrae Cantrell_ ," a younger and cheery Suki spoke to her soon-to-be bosses. " _I was born 199'89 in the Independent Republic of Morocco_."

"Liar," the Editor sneered over holo-Suki's next sentence and the real Suki snapped her attention to him. She didn't look scared anymore, but more... curious?

" _Hobbies include reading and archeology. I'm not an expert or anything, I just like digging._ "

"Liar."

" _I want to work for Satellite Five because my sister can't afford university, and the pay scheme is really good-"_

"Liar!" the Editor snapped his fingers again and the projection died away, leaving the real Suki to be glaring deeply at him. "Let's look at the facts, shall we?"

He snapped his fingers _again_ to another holo-projection of a woman who looked like Suki dressed in army clothes, violently shooting at something while her army members were running toward the danger in the background.

"Ah, hidden behind a genetic graft, but that's still you," the Editor narrated and Suki digged for something in her purse that she still had on her. "Eva Saint Julienne, last surviving member of the Freedom Fifteen. Hmm, self-declared anarchist, is that right?" He snapped away the projection and saw another interesting sight.

Suki was now holding a futuristic gun at him with an unreadable, hard face, "Who controls Satellite Five?"

The Editor sheepishly raised his hands before laughing out and clapped, "There's the _truth_!"

"The Freedom Foundation has been monitoring Satellite Five's transmissions," Suki informed him in a much more intelligent way than her acting self. "We have absolute proof that the facts are being manipulated. You are lying to the people."

"Ooo, I love it," the Editor wasn't at all fazed, knowing that she wasn't going to shoot him. She had probably been acting like a kind-hearted idiot for too long to remember how intimidating you had to look in order for a gun interrogation to work. It would work on a civilian, but not to him. He had been doing this long enough to know that threats don't work until you deliver. "Say it again."

"This whole system is corrupt. Who do you represent?"

"I'm merely a humble slave. I answer to the Editor in Chief."

"Who is he?" Suki looked around the room and failed to look directly above her head. "Where is he?"

"He's overseeing everything," the Editor laughed at his inside joke. "Literally everything. If you don't mind, I'm going to have to refer this upwards." He snapped his fingers and pointed up to the ceiling. Suki heard a growl and immediately pointed her gun up to the ceiling. Between the Editor and the thing... the thing needed to have the gun pointed at more than the pale man.

"What is that?" Suki frantically asked her famous last words, showing pure fright for the first time aboard the satellite.

"Your boss," the Editor smirked and waited for the next stage of promotion. "This has always been your boss, since the day you were born."

The thing on the ceiling roared and dived down toward Suki, who responded with multiple shots at it. When the gun proved useless, all she could do was scream until her fate had been met with.

She had been promoted to the next stage of life: death.

A/N: Bit of news for you, _Long Game_ is actually going to be FOUR parts long instead of three. Why? Because when you put the transcript onto Docs - the way I have it set up - it's 8 pages long. The average I write is about 4 - 6 pages, and I determine that by having the entire episode transcript and take the page amount and divide it by 3 to see how I can divide this all up. 7 pages I could probably bare, but 8?! That'll take a very long time, so it's going to be 4 parts instead of three. Bright side: this story will be exactly 40 chapters! Don't you just love it when this happens? Let's be optimistic about this. Not being happy about anything leads you to dark things, and no one like the dark dark things. If you like violence and death, you're a bit creepy but I guess it's alright. I'm talking about the really dark stuff. That was going to sound better... Oh well.

Onto more important stuff... did you all catch The Magician's Apprentice? -SPOILERS! SERIOUSLY SPOILERS! WARNING!- When the little boy said he was Davros, I heard "Deathross" so the whole time I was like, "Who is Deathross? Why does he sound familiar?" It wasn't until I actually saw Davros was when I had my lightbulb moment and I felt like a complete idiot XD I haven't watched The Stolen Earth/Journey's End in awhile, so I completely forgot how they say his name.

As always, much appreciation for the follows, reviews, and 3's. Until next time! Au revoir!


	21. LOng Game: All Hail the Jagrafess

"Genius" Adam had made his way back over to an observation deck that didn't have the TARDIS in sight, so this was a completely different deck. There was some more people here as well as some new gadgets that could be the future's computer system. They were simply little pillars with screens on the top that you had to navigate with with your hand.

Adam approached one of them with purpose and curiosity, touching the screen with his palm to activate it, "Give me access." The lights around the edges of it lit up to indicate that it was powered on. "Give me-" Before he could say what he wanted to know, he received a tiny shock that was enough to make his hand pull away from the console.

Because of the shock and whatever information he read on the screen, Adam seemed to come to a realization that he could..., "I can learn anything." He put his hand back on the screen. "Let's try computers. From the 21st century to the present date, give me the history of the microprocessor."

Loads of information in the form of tiny words and sentences appeared on the screen along with little pictures with exceptional quality. All of this - without even registering what the sentences were saying - was enough to make his mind blow.

.l.l.l.

The detatched, time travelling trio and Cathica were back in the broadcasting room where Cathica had been a news queen with her subjects on the ground giving her the information necessary for the Earthlings down below as well as for the other satellites. The Doctor was casually lounging in the black chair while the girls were standing in different areas.

Cathica wasn't happy that the "manager" and his associates were still following her around and giving her a "test." She was still a bit crabby about not being the one to get the promotion, but she had worked out a system to calm down and had formed it a few years ago. It took her about a few days to get over her hate toward the chosen person before realizing that she could still prove to them that she was worth promoting.

"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance," she leaned her head against the wall in boredom or annoyance. "Can't you give a rest?"

"Are you seriously not bothered by this?" Virgo stared at her like she had two heads while pacing around the room, nothing else to do but think. She had to distract herself from Suki because she was too disturbed by how easily Cathica had said no one would see her again - on this floor, anyway. She didn't like death or death-related subjects so she really wanted to solve the puzzle to Floor 500. "Have you never been to another floor, not even a floor up or down?"

"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived," Cathica told her. "That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five: you work, eat, and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." She eyed all three time travellers suspiciously. "You're not management, are you?"

"At last!" the Doctor said sarcastically. "She's clever."

Cathica glared at him, "Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

"But you're not even curious?" Virgo stopped pacing and stared at the employee exasperated. "Not the slightest bit? Not enough to be interested in it?"

That's another bit that the Time Lady was curious about. Her whole life now was all about getting curious about something and diving straight into danger to find the answer or answers for it. If she met anyone else like Cathica, she'd never be able to understand them.

"Well, why would I?" Cathica shrugged absently, unable to see why Virgo was so confused about.

"You're a journalist," the Doctor pointed out to her. "Why's all the crew human?"

Cathica turned onto him, "What's _that_ got to do with anything?" At this point, she didn't want to answer their questions for two reasons: they weren't managers and lied to her, and she didn't want to get in trouble if they were some kind of silent attackers that were going to invade the whole satellite. She didn't believe in her second reason too much because none of them seemed to be the sort to do that.

"There's no aliens on board," the Doctor worded his last question differently into a statement in an attempt to get around Cathica's useless protests. "Why?"

"I don't know," she grumbled and looked like she had never thought about why there weren't any aliens - ones that she knew of - onboard. "No real reason... They're not banned or anything."

"If they're not 'banned,' then where are they?" Virgo interrogated.

"I suppose... immigration's tightened up," Cathica slowly spoke and finally started to connect the dots. Not the important ones, but it was progress. "It's had to, what, with all the threats."

"What threats?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know. All of them, usual stuff... And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away... Oh! The government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming. You see? Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact and you didn't even notice," the Doctor concluded and his prediction became his theory.

Cathica rolled her eyes, as if what the Time Lord said was absurd, "Doctor, I think if there was some kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."

"I can see better," the Time Lord countered smartly. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."

"It's cutting edge!"

"It's _backwards_. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out _years_ ago."

Rose spoke for the first time since entering the room with confrontations toward Cathica, "So what do you think's going on?"

"Something's messing with history," Virgo replied to her while pondering deeply on the subject at the same time. "Not just history, but every single human in the Empire. Something's messing with the way they're thinking and the way they behave." The Time Lady said the last part of the last sentence while staring at Cathica meaningfully, and she huffed at her.

"And how would you know?" Cathica snarled rudely at her.

"I think it's safe to say that my history is much better than his," Virgo pointed to the Doctor, who had nodded in approval before registering what she had said. "Humanity's been set back about ninety years, and here comes the ultimate twist: Satellite Five must have launched at least two or three years before humanity became this. Cathica, you tell me, am I right?"

Cathica was staring at her with wide eyes in silence. She was shocked at how quickly Virgo could put two and two together and realized the irony of Satellite Five. After a few seconds of processing, she finally spoke, "Yes. It was 91 years ago."

"My history is perfect!" the Doctor defended himself and Virgo could only shake her head at him.

.l.l.l.

Adam was still at it with the future computer, but the only thing that had changed here was that he hacked into Rose's phone to get past the passcode on it and contact his parents again. He had managed to make the computer give out the information a tad bit slower... and when that was still too fast for him, he figured out how to freeze the computer so he could read the information on the microprocessor. Funny, maybe Adam was really a genius after all.

He received his mother's voicemail again, which was actually what he wanted.

"Mum, Dad, keep this message, okay?" Adam spoke into the phone with his eyes unblinking. "Whatever you do, don't erase it. Save it. You got that? 'The microprocessor became redundant in the year 2019, replaced by a system called SMT - that's Single Molecule Transcription-'"

He was cut off by a sudden change of images that eventually formed white, bold words: Floor Sixteen.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Adam panicked and moved the phone away from his ear so he could use both hands to try and find the microprocessor history again. "What're you doing? Come back! Why are you doing that? What's Floor Sixteen? What's down there?"

.l.l.l.

Adam did what any other ordinary citizen of the year 200,000 would do when 'Floor Sixteen' was sprawled out on a screen: he went to Floor Sixteen by via elevator. The doors opened to reveal him standing awkwardly in them. He walked out of it and the doors closed, and that's when he took a look around the room to see what he had gotten himself into.

It looked like a low-class office with white, clean desks dancing around the perimeter with people wearing red uniforms either writing something down, typing, or conversing with colleagues or customers. The room itself was dimly lit with similar architecture as Floor 139, so it was looking pretty futuristic.

He eventually spotted a desk with a woman in a red uniform and brown hair in a pixie cut writing something down on a pad that looked like an Ipad. It was the only desk that didn't have anyone socializing with the employee, so he took advantage of this and walked over to her.

"Sorry," Adam waved at her awkwardly and she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Er, Floor Sixteen, that's... er... What do you cover?"

The nurse stared at him oddly, as this was common knowledge to everyone on Satellite Five, "Medical non-emergency."

"Right," Adam nodded and acted like someone who was trying to remember which movie a particular song was from and had just figured it out. "Yeah, wrong floor. I'm having... technical difficulties. My screen keeps freezing, blocking me out."

"No, _that's_ medical," the nurse chuckled at him. "There must be something wrong with your chip."

All Adam could do was agree with her in this awkward situation, "Yes! Yeah, of course, yeah... I haven't got one."

"No wonder you can't get a screen to work," the nurse said. "What are you, a student?"

"Yes!" Adam quickly informed her and took a seat in front of the desk as a lie quickly formed into his head. "Yeah, I'm er, I'm on a research project from the... University of... Mars." The last sentence sounded more of a question, but the nurse didn't seem to recognize it as that type of sentence. In fact, she seemed annoyed now.

"The Martian boondocks," the nurse grumbled like she was a senior at a high school and Adam was a stupid freshman. "Typical."

"Yeah," Adam giggled sheepishly and rested his head on his hand.

"Well, you still need chipping."

"So, does that mean, like, brain surgery?"

The nurse frowned at his use of words, "That's an old fashioned phrase, but it's still the same thing, yes."

"Oh," Adam sat up with a straight face, not wanting to go through with surgery. It may be the future, but there were still accidents and he didn't want to die a long way from home. "Okay, never mind... but if I get a chip, that means I could use any computer."

"Absolutely," the nurse assured him with a polite smile before faltering. "You'll have to _pay_ for it. They've stopped subsiding."

"Oh!" Adam repeated the word once again and got up from the table in farewell. "Right. Sorry. Wasting your time. Thanks." He politely waved before heading to the elevator... before remembering the cash Virgo gave him a few stories up. He took it out of his pocket and walked back to the nurse. "Hold on. Can I use this?"

The nurse looked up from her work to see what Adam offered her, then smirked, "That'll do nicely." She got up and led her prey over to the room where the doctors and occasionally the nurses performed the 'brain surgery' upon their subjects. They didn't really know that the technology here was wrong, they were only doing their innocent jobs in assisting the Empire.

She opened the door and patted on the black chair identical to the one that Cathica had sat on to do the broadcasting, and Adam sat down on it. She pulled a circular device that was hanging on the roof above his head and grabbed the supplies off a metal table.

"It all comes down to two basic types," the nurse explained to him. "Type one: the head chip inserted into the back of the skull - one hundred credits. There's the chip." She showed him the little cube. It took Adam a few seconds to locate it because it was so small. "Tiny, invisible, no scarring. Type two is the full info-spike."

"Oh, that's the...," Adam put in and gestured to his forehead, "thing."

"That's the one," the nurse nodded, now she almost looked scary to Adam. "It _does_ cost 10,000."

"Oh, well, I, er, I couldn't afford it then," Adam stuttered and stared at his hands that were resting on his thighs.

"Not at all," the nurse denied the statement and showed him the credit bar for further validation of what she was going to say next. "It turns out you've got unlimited credit."

"No, but I couldn't have it done. I mean, that's gotta hurt, hasn't it?"

"Painless, contractual guarantee."

"No, my mate's waiting downstairs, I can't have major surgery," Adam leaned over the edge of the chair as the nurse grew closer and closer to him, invading his personal bubble. She had this hungry look in her eyes for the money, and he wasn't really pumped about this. Who knew if she was going to drug him and take him to her room and murder him?

"It takes ten minutes," the nurse told him in an eerily soft tone. "That sort of money buys a very fast picosurgeon."

"No, but, I-I couldn't," Adam shook his head with a nervous laugh and moved back to the middle of the chair because the nurse was now circling it.

"Type one: you can interface with a simple computer," the nurse baited him. "Type two: _you_ are the computer. You can transmit any piece of information from the archive of Satellite Five, which is just about the entire history of the human race. Now... which one's it going to be?"

Adam gulped loudly and found himself shrinking even more into the chair while the nurse was giving him a stern look. He thought about it for a few moments before giving into her tricks.

.l.l.l.

"We are so going to get in trouble," Cathica paced around nervously while the Doctor was hacking into a pair of locked double doors with Rose and Virgo offering assistance to him. Virgo really did need to pick up a book on engineering because she was now starting to realize how important it was to know about it. That's another thing to add to her long list of things-to-do. "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe! You're going to get told off."

"I think we already know that," Virgo rolled her eyes at the human's nervous antics. "It's not the end of the world if you break the rules, so relax."

"You can't just vandalise the place," Cathica argued with her. "Someone's going to notice!"

The doors opened, as if to side with the trio and ignore Cathica's protests.

.l.l.l.

The Editor was stroking his chin like a scientist while frowning in confusion at the giant screen that was showing the activities of the Doctor, Cathica, Virgo, and Rose. A deceased Suki/Eva was sitting with her new co-workers in a similar state as the rest of them. There were some icicles in her hair and her face was in a forever state of tiredness.

"I don't understand," the Editor remarked, very puzzled. "We did a full security scan. That man was there when we found Suki Marae Cantrell. There were no indications about him, and yet here he is, clearly acting outside the parameters. Fascinating."

There was a snarl from his boss, and the Editor quickly jumped to action.

"Yes, sir," the Editor faced it apologetically. "Absolutely. At once." He turned back to his victims angrily. "Check him. Double check him. Triple check him. Quadruple."

.l.l.l.

The Doctor was grinning like an idiot as he was putting wires together and sometimes creating a shower of sparks to rain down on his leather jacket; Rose and Virgo were wincing when that happened, though. Cathica was the opposite of happy and was still extremely nervous about getting in trouble.

She eventually came to a decision, "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." She waved them off and walked away.

"Go on, then," the Doctor sarcastically waved back. "See you!"

This only caused Cathica to wince and turn on her heel to walk back over to the trio, "I can't just leave you, can I?!"

"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down," Rose advised and shrugged her sweater a bit to make herself a bit cooler. "It's _boiling_. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"

"I don't know," Cathica shrugged with a deep, pondering frown. Finally she was starting to question everything, starting to break free from the Empire's trance. "We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

"'Something to do with the turbine,'" the Doctor mocked her quietly, but the said woman heard him.

"Well, I don't know!" she glared daggers at the back of his head in irritation or annoyance, she wasn't sure which one she felt more of about him.

"Well, you're not exactly doing a good job in this sort of thing, now are you?" Virgo pointed out and leaned against the wall, tired of standing. "If Rose can ask the right kind of questions, then you should be able to, too. Why _is_ it so hot? What's up with that?"

Cathica just scoffed, "One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's central heating!"

"Never underestimate anything," Virgo remarked wisely with a pointed look. "The smallest thing can change something for the better or worse."

.l.l.l.

The Editor waited for the computer to scan the time travelling trio and eventually grinned when it said the scan was 100% complete and with a, " _Security scan complete._ "

"Well, who is he?" the Editor asked it for answers.

" _He is no one_ ," the computer reported to him.

"What does that mean?" the Editor furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, never hearing that statement before. The computer told him everything, and because of that he knew everything as well. This was very remarkable and interesting because he got to learn something new!

" _He is no one_."

"What, do you mean he has a fake ID?"

" _He has no identification._ "

"But everyone's registered," the Editor protested against the computer's true statements. He should know that this was true, because he had looked through all of the interviews. He never really recognized every single person aboard the satellite because it had been some time now since he searched through them. "We have a census for the entire Empire."

" _He is no one._ "

"What, he doesn't exist? Not anywhere?"

" _He is no one_."

"What about the one in the hat?"

" _She is no one_."

"The pink one?"

" _She is no one_."

"All three of them?" the Editor gaped in amazement. This was so rare, and it was so exciting! "Well, we all know what happens to non-entities. They get promoted. Bring them up."

.l.l.l.

The Doctor finally succeeded in finding a schematic of the plumbing layout that didn't take very long to find; it was the wiring that took quite a long time to figure out. He was pretty used to tinkering away in the TARDIS, so he was a bit rusty with simple and boring wires. This had been a nice exercise for him.

"Here we go," the Doctor tapped some things on the screen to make it bigger so that everyone could see it. "Satellite Five: pipes and plumbings. Look at the layout."

"Now that's interesting," Virgo peaked over the Time Lord's shoulder. Her main point of focus was the little blue cloud located at the very top, and the cloud was generating heat and distributing it throughout the satellite. It didn't take a genius or an 'Adam-Genius' to guess that something was on Floor 500.

"This is ridiculous," Cathica spat out at them, not even bothering to look at the schematics. "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?"

"But there's something wrong," the Doctor countered her complaints, and what he said seemed to get through to the woman again.

"I suppose," Cathica admitted distastefully.

"Why, what is it?" Rose wondered aloud, not really able to see what the Time Lords could see on the screen. She could see the obvious blue cloud, but that was all she could muster up.

"The ventilation system," Cathica explained to her, having memorized the schematics from the countless times she hacked secretly into it to find the source of all the heat. It was one of the reasons why she wanted to get to Floor 500: it had nice temperatures up there. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channeling massive amounts of heat down."

"All the way from the top," the Doctor concluded in agreement.

"Floor 500," Rose said.

"There's something up there that's creating heat and carrying it out to all the floors," Virgo pointed to the bubble and traced the heat down all the way to the bottom of the satellite. "It's all going on at the top floor. Anyone care to visit Floor 500 with me?"

"You know, I fancy a trip as well," Rose volunteered and jokingly raised a hand to 'volunteer as tribute.'

"You can't," Cathica rolled her eyes at them. "You need a key."

"Keys are just codes," the Doctor waved her off, honestly just wanting her to leave them alone. She had grown quite annoying after the twenty minute mark of hanging out with her in the broadcasting room. She was too focused on work for him to like her. "-and I've got the codes right here. Here we go. Override 215.9."

While the screen did its magic to unlock the elevator doors, Cathica widened her eyes in amazement, "How come it's given you the code?"

The Doctor looked up and stared directly into the security camera that was fixed on them, "Someone up there likes me." He could probably hear the Editor's evil laugh all the way from down here.

The elevator opened up its majestic doors and the time travelling trio stepped inside automatically. There didn't seem to be any buttons, so Rose took the opportunity to invite Cathica along to increase the woman's bravery to break the rules.

"Come on," the blonde beckoned her. "Come with us."

"No way!" Cathica denied her offer without even thinking about it and backed away from the elevator.

"Bye!" the Doctor mockingly waved.

"Well, don't mention my name," Cathica told them with a pointed look. "When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." She shook her head at them before turning on her heel to leave. Well, at least the trio could finally focus and not listen to her pointless arguments anymore. That's a plus side, right?

"That's her gone," the Doctor mused. "Adam's given up. Looks like it's just the three of us."

"And that's good," Virgo smirked and wrapped her arms around the Time Lord's and Rose's neck. "We're all friends here. Let's fight like friends."

.l.l.l.

Adam raised his hand in front of his face and snapped his fingers. The surgery had been completed and the nurse had told him to snap the fingers when he wants to open up the little doors. He was lying when he said that he wasn't surprised to still be in the surgery room when he awoke from the anesthesia. He thought that he had been kidnapped and taken to the nurse's basement and await his brutal fate. The nurse really did look that scary.

"Oh, my God," Adam whimpered when he saw his brain in the mirror the nurse was holding in front of him. "I'm going to be sick." He covered his mouth with one hand while another fetched a waste bin. He vomited into it, but the vomit felt like a cube and not the gross, liquid-y stuff. After a few coughs, he reached his hand into the bin and pulled out pale yellow cube.

"Special offer," the nurse chuckled. "We installed the vomitomatic at the same time. Nano-termites have been placed in the lining of your throat. In the event of sickness, they freeze the waste."

Adam blinked and stared at the nurse. Oh, he was going to be sick again...

.l.l.l.

The elevator doors opened to the wintery room of Floor 500, the exact room that Suki arrived in before she went to the Editor's office and was turned into a working zombie. Now that the tio could see the walls weren't gold, it could now be assumed that Suki was dead and they had to avenge her.

The Doctor was the first to step out of the elevator with skepticalness written all over his face, "The walls are not made of gold. You should go back downstairs."

Rose took a deep breath and clenched her fists, "Tough." She stepped out of the elevator bravely and now the only one standing in it was Virgo.

The Time Lady crossed her arms in a grimace and stepped out, "All I really want to do is bring Suki back downstairs then deal with whatever is generating the heat. If she's dead, then I'm going to have to file a complaint for Satellite Five." She barely had a chance to look around the room before the door to the office opened with a bright light on, the same trap that Suki fell for.

"Let's do this," Virgo grumbled before leading the way to the doorway, Rose and the Doctor following behind her.

When they arrived, the Editor was merely staring at the screen in fascination at the information on the trio. His hand was caressing his chin again and his eyebrows were raised.

"I started without you," he spoke without facing them. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire; birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three." He finally faced them. "You don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

"Hold on, hold on," Virgo raised a hand to stop him from continuing. "I get that you're interested, I know the feeling. It's fun not to know something - well, depends on the subject, really. I won't answer your questions until you can tell me why you've turned Suki into a puppet."

Rose didn't notice the woman until Virgo had pointed it out, so she quickly ran over to the zombie employee and shook her shoulders.

"Suki!" Rose tried to revive her. "Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki? What have you done to her?"

"She's dead and she's also working," Virgo stormed up the stairs and toward the Editor. "They have chips in their heads, remember? While the brain is dead, the chip keeps the bodies going as working puppets."

"Oh, you're full of information!" the Editor clapped his hands excitedly. "But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"If you want to know something, why don't I tell you this?" Virgo stepped closer to him with a dangerous look in her eye. "I don't respond well to people who've killed my friends. I haven't really known Suki for more than a day, but I really liked her. She had such hope for a little promotion and that quickly turned her dead.

"And now we'll be off," the Doctor suggested and made his way toward Virgo. "Nice to meet you. Come on."

Before he could grab her hand two zombie workers grabbed him by the arms, one for Virgo, and Rose was doomed by Suki.

"Tell me who you are," the Editor interrogated them.

"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?" the Time Lord hissed at him and struggled in the zombies' grip.

"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise," the Editor suggested casually with an evil smirk plastered upon his face. This was always his favorite part: seeing the victim's reaction to the boss.

"And why haven't we met our Lord and Master yet?" Virgo questioned him in an attempt to take control over the interrogation despite the fact that they were restrained. "When do we get to meet this 'Editor in Chief?'"

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," the Editor explained. "In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live-" The snarl from up above cut him off. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are _allowed_ to live by kind permission of my client." He snapped his fingers and pointed up.

What the trio saw took their breath away.

There was a gigantic, orange blob attached to the ceiling with sharp teeth and a long tongue. It looked very slimy and its eyes were firmly shut.

"What is that?" Rose gaped at the blob.

"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" the Doctor widened his eyes at it.

"'That thing' - as you put it - is in charge of _the human race_ ," the Editor took offence to the 'thing' statement. "For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light: the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe." The Jagrafess snarled once to verify that this was true, and the Editor smirked again. "I call him Max."

A/N: I would like to take a minute to really say thank you for everything you guys/gals are doing. We've reached 20 follows on this story which, to me, is more than what I could have expected. I really didn't think people would enjoy this as much as I'm enjoying writing it, so really, honest to God, really... _thank you_. It always warms my heart when I receive the emails that say "[insert username here] is now following/has favorited Hidden Away." I even squeal when I get reviews! I'll admit, I always prepare myself in case it's going to be a review that says this sucks. Haven't got that yet and I'm dreading the day I do. So thank you guys so much! I honestly want all of us to have a big party so I can hug each and every one of you! Sounds a bit creepy, but I like hugs :) Hugs are nice.

I'm also sorry because I know I said I'd update every other day, but at least some of you know how high school is. _So much work and stress_. Last week I could hardly sit down and really focus on this because I had English, French, biology, math, and even a bit of history in one day. I finished biology and English before I said, "No, I'm done. I want some freedom." Since writing out the episodes is a bit of work itself, I just couldn't do it without feeling like I was being forced to do it. Hope you understand that and I really want to get this done before second semester because I _know_ I'm hardly going to have any free time on my hands.

To sum up, thank you for everything you all are doing! Really means a lot to me! Let's all hope that season 9 will be as brilliant as all the other seasons...


	22. Long Game: Betrayal

The Editor paced in front of his restrained victims and elaborated on the Empire at the same time, having too much fun toying around with them. He never got to do that! Usually when someone got promoted, they went up the elevator from whatever floor they were working on originally, find the bodies in the broadcasting room, go to the door with the light on, introductions, see their new boss, then finally die. He never really got to have a full-on conversation with them, and it _was_ their last conversation with anyone and he had to live with that. It wasn't really a burden to him, though, considering how heartless and messed-up he already was.

The Doctor, Virgo, and Rose were forced into manacles around their wrists that were connected to a sort of pole thing that one of the zombie crewmen brought out. They had gone down kicking and screaming, but they weren't dead yet, now were they? There was still hope... but not much. All they could do was keep the Editor bragging while they came up with an escape plan.

"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed," the Editor remarked. "It's just a matter of emphasis; the right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are, like, slaves," Rose summed up and was meant to sound like an accusation directed at her captor, but it really sounded like she was adding onto the Editor's words.

"Well, now there's an interesting point," the said man realized. "Is a slave a slave is he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes," was all the Doctor said.

"Oh?" the pale man raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"

"Yes," the Doctor repeated his word.

The Editor mocked a pout on his face with a fake broken heart, "You're no fun."

"If you want fun, then why not just let us out?" Virgo challenged with pure hatred written all over her face. "You're a coward if you're just going to keep us locked up, so why not unlock this thing and you'll see how much fun things can get?"

Right now, she didn't know who she wanted more safe: her friends or herself. She would never in a million years beg someone to hurt them, but she would also ask the same for her child growing inside of her. And to have him/her unharmed, Virgo would have to be relatively unharmed. Well this was just a fantastic situation, now wasn't it?

"Oh, she's tough, isn't she?" the Editor cheered teasingly. "But, come on! Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"You can't hide something on this scale," Rose pointed out with constant glances toward the poor people sitting on the chairs beside her. "Somebody must have noticed."

"From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains," he agreed. "I can see the smallest doubt..." He raised his hand in front of his face, "and _crush it_." He clenched his fist tightly and his expression darkened. "Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

About halfway through his speech was when a little head peeked into the doorway behind the Editor's back, and this went unnoticed by the time travelling trio. They tried to not make it obvious that someone was behind him by "casually" looking around the room and make eye contact with the head. The head, by the way, belonged to none other than Cathica.

"What about you?" Rose asked him, a bit distracted by Cathica's surprise entry. "You're not a... Jagra... belly..."

"Jagrafess," the Doctor and Virgo quickly corrected her, hoping that the Editor would understand the mistake as a grammar error rather than a distraction one.

"Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess, you're human."

"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well," the Editor snarled at her.

"But you couldn't have done this all on your own."

"No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."

Everyone looked up at the Jagrafess; Cathica covered her mouth with her hands in shock from noticing the giant blob for the first time.

"Of course it would need help," Virgo rolled her eyes and the Jagrafess growled at her. "That thing's huge."

"What's his lifespan?" the Doctor questioned the Editor.

"3,000 years," the pale man answered him with a small smile. If the Time Lord didn't know any better, he'd say that the Editor had a little crush on the Jagrafess on the ceiling. Pretty odd at first, but both of them are evil and messed-up; they'd make the perfect couple, but certainly not the cutest... more like the weirdest.

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat," the Doctor commented.

"And that's why downstairs is a boiler room," Virgo nodded, catching on to what the Doctor was saying. "You take the heat out from it and channel it downstairs. In return, the Jagrafess stays comfortable and alive, meaning that the entire satellite is a giant life support system. Seems stupid to me to waste all that money just to give it some life."

.l.l.l.

Adam sat on the black chair in the broadcasting room and took Rose's phone out of his pocket, ringing up on his parents again. He waited through the digital rings until the voicemail finally came through with his mother's apologetic tone to phone them later.

"It's me again," he spoke nervously and glanced up at the little machine connected to the ceiling. "Don't wipe this message. It's just going to sound like white noise, but save it because I can translate it, okay?" He lowered the phone slightly so it wouldn't intercept the beam's way toward his head. "Three, two, one... and spike."

Completely forgetting about the safety feature, the beam shot from the "gun" and into his forehead, making him screaming in pain and his body convulsing.

.l.l.l.

"But _that's_ why you're so dangerous," the Editor informed the time travelling trio, still interrogating each other on Floor 500 with Cathica eavesdropping on them. "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?"

He snapped his fingers in boredom and that caused blue, electric bolts to shoot through the manacles, electrocuting the poor victims. The trio shut their eyes and curled up their fists to try and endure the pain, and once it was over they were panicking slightly.

"All right, stop it!" Virgo shouted at the villain with pleading eyes. "You want answers? Fine, have them. I'm Virgo, he's the Doctor, and she's Rose Tyler. If we're 'no one,' then we must be completely unimportant. Now leave us alone!"

"Tell me who you are!" the Editor didn't seem to believe her for one second and raised his hand in a threat to snap his fingers again to torture them.

"You idiot, I just said!" the Time Lady snapped at him and charged as far as her restraints would allow her. "You don't have a lot of sources, so who else can you believe?!"

"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly..." The Editor trailed off and the Jagrafess from up above growled at him, it seeming to tell him something. The pale man started to smile and eventually let out an impressed chuckle. "Time Lord."

"What?" the Doctor furrowed his eyebrows in an attempt to look like he didn't know what the Editor was talking about, but it must have been a bad act because the Editor was beaming now.

"Oh, yes," the Editor applauded. "The last of the Time Lords in their travelling machine. Oh, with their little human girl from long ago." He reached out to stroke Rose's cheek when he said the last sentence, but she pulled away from his touch in discomfort.

"You don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor tried to convince him, but to no avail.

"Time travel," the pale man breathed happily.

"Someone's been telling you lies."

"Young master Adam Mitchell?" the Editor stepped back a few feet and snapped his fingers at the same time, bringing up a projection of Adam sitting in the broadcasting room and screaming his head off from the pain. The noise coming from the room was muted so that the Editor didn't go deaf.

The trio in front of him could only let their jaws drop to the floor in shock at what Adam had done. Rose was mainly stuck on the part that a portal was in his head rather than the bigger issue at hand which was him being in pain.

"Oh, my God," she finally formed the words to express what was in front of her in horror. "His head!"

"Adam...," Virgo closed her eyes in frustration. She hoped that he didn't actually use the money to get the door in his head willingly; if he bought it willingly, she needed to have a quick chat with him... before throwing him into a supernova. "That's it. No more adding new companions for a very long time. The _idiot_!" She now understood how the Doctor felt about Mickey the Idiot.

"What the hell's he done?!" the Doctor cried out. "What the hell's he gone and done?! They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything."

The Editor was physically pleased by this, "And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mind. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor, Virgo. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S, TARDIS."

"No, I don't own the TARDIS, too," Virgo corrected him, seeing no reason not to do so. "It's his, not mine."

"You'll never get your hands on it," the Doctor sneered at the Editor. "I'll die first."

"Die all you like," the Editor shrugged in a bored manner. "I don't need you. I've got the key."

He quite literally meant he had the key because Rose's TARDIS key somehow rose (no pun intended) from Adam's pocket and levitated in the air. Adam could only watch it with strained eyes, not having enough strength to reach out and grab it back.

"You and your boyfriends!" the Doctor glared at Rose, who gazed down in the floor in partial guilt.

It wasn't _totally_ her fault. Yes, she did ask if Adam could come with them and gave him the TARDIS key, but she didn't know he would do _this_! She wasn't there when Adam got the surgery for the brain portal thing, so she was only partially responsible for the madness the so-called "genius" was creating.

"Today, _we_ are the headlines," the Editor said. " _We_ can rewrite history. _We_ could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"Indeed you can," Virgo nodded in agreement with a deep frown. "You've bred a human race who don't ask questions because they're stupid enough to believe a giant lie." She stared directly at Cathica meaningfully. "It's no wonder people will work ridiculously hard for promotions if they're told the 'walls are made of gold.'"

Cathica swallowed hard and looked back onto a growling Jagrafess, made eye contact with Virgo, then finally nodded at her new plan that was forming in her head. Didn't she see a broadcasting room graveyard somewhere...?

She turned her head to see the said room a few yards away, completely covered with frost and the occasional clump of snow. She strode with purpose over to the room, carelessly pushing the corpse that was on the black chair onto the ground, then took its place.

"Disengage safety," Cathica ordered with hopes that the room itself was even working. The corpses were really old with cobwebs on their shoulders and ribs, so they've been there for a very long time. Lights lit up the room to indicate that it was functioning perfectly fine, so Cathica formed a relieved smile. She snapped her fingers to open up the portal in her head. "Maximum access. Override Floor 139."

Downstairs, the beam in Adam's room retreated from his forehead and the portal in it closed for now. The TARDIS key also dropped to the ground with some clinking noises on the metal floor.

"And spike!"

.l.l.l.

"Someone's disengaged the safety," the Editor spoke frantically and snapped his fingers to view the source of the person who caused it. A small surveillance with Cathica's determined face appeared in front of him, and he just furrowed his eyebrows in shock or confusion. "Who's _that_?!"

"It's Cathica," Rose declared proudly.

"And she's thinking," the Doctor added on with a beam. "She's using what she knows."

"Terminate her access," the Editor ordered his zombie crew angrily.

"Everything we told her about Satellite Five," the Doctor continued. "The pipes, the filters; she's reversing it. Look at that." He nodded up to the icicles on the ceiling that were starting to drip with melted droplets of water. "It's getting hot."

"I said terminate! Burn out her mind!"

" _Oh, no you don't_ ," Cathica raised a finger and pointed at the 'camera,' somehow hearing the Editor over the noise the beam was making and the distance between them. " _You should have promoted me_ years _back._ "

The consoles suddenly exploded with showers of sparks raining down to the ground and all the zombie crew collapsed onto the floor or went limp in their chairs. The important thing was they were free from a living hell. Alarms started to blare throughout the rest of Satellite Five - which caused panic from the residents, of course -and Virgo was able to break free from her manacles.

"She's venting the heat up here," the Doctor beamed while Virgo fished out her sonic screwdriver. "The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano."

Virgo freed the Doctor's right hand first then moved onto his left one. The Jagrafess was not a happy camper because it was growling furiously at the Editor, him being the only one to actually understand it.

"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it," the Editor reassured his boss in exasperation, unsure what to do now that the zombie crew were now finally dead. "It's impossible. A member of the staff with an idea." Having no other solution in mind, the Editor simply pushed Suki out of her seat and took over her computer to manually try and fix it.

Virgo finally got both of her friends free, so she took an opportunity to get Rose out of the room with a great want of her and herself not getting hurt in the exploding room. She knew what was going to happen to the Editor and really couldn't do anything about it when the Doctor was involved, so it was best to get out as soon as possible. The Time Lady didn't believe that the Editor had to die, but apparently it was justice to the Doctor.

"Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty?" the Doctor taunted the Editor. "Massive heat in a massive bang. See you in the headlines!" He sarcastically waved a farewell to him before running after the women.

The Editor seemed to agree with the Doctor's plan of running, so he got up from his seat and politely smiled up at the Jagrafess, "Actually, sir, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll resign. Bye, then!"

He also waved at it before running toward the door. After about two steps forward, a fallen Suki blinked open her eyes and grabbed the Editor's leg with inhuman strength.

"Let go of me! Let go of me! Let go of me!"

Suki, or Eva Saint Julienne, wouldn't let go until the very end of her life. The entirety of the office blew up with debris flying everywhere from the force; the time travelling trio were safely located in Cathica's broadcasting room, her still giving information via brain portal.

Virgo snapped her fingers and the portal closed for the last time of the day, and Cathica blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to reality. She looked around the room for a few moments before landing her eyes on the people she just saved, and smiled softly.

.l.l.l.

The trio and Cathica were back on Floor 139, sitting at the tables while the residents of Satellite Five were making their way toward the front doors. The satellite had landed back on Earth after the mini explosions throughout the place, and some people had gotten seriously injured. At least they were finally free from the Jagrafess's long, unfair, and cruel reign over the Human Empire. The humans would learn how to ask questions again when something seemed very suspicious and to throw away the government lies; now they were back on track and ready to do some more exploring into the universe.

"I guess it's time to head off," Virgo mused and tapped her feet on the ground. "I'm not really in the mood to help sort out the people; they'll do that on their own. You'll be fine."

Cathica shook her head in disagreement, typical, "You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me."

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now," the Doctor stated wisely with a smirk. "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."

"What about your friend?" Cathica looked over his shoulder at Adam leaning against the TARDIS anxiously. She had to raise an eyebrow in amusement; he knew he messed up big time and had to face the consequences, but the way he looked was just funny to her.

Virgo's expression darkened, "He's _not_ my friend. Not in a million years will he ever be." She groaned in irritation, stood up, and stormed over to the 'genius;' The Doctor and Rose weren't far behind her.

"Now, don't...," Rose tried to calm them down because she knew they were most likely going to do something awful to the poor guy, but trailed off when she realized that nothing was ever going to stop an angry alien. Oh, well. She'd just have to hope that Adam would at least be left at home unscathed.

"I'm all right now," Adam laughed nervously and backed up more against the blue box. "Much better... and I've got the key." He held it up cheerfully in hopes that the Time Lords might buy it, but his grin faltered when Virgo snatched it out of his hand and used it to unlock the TARDIS. "Look, it's... It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually _my_ fault because _you_ were in charge."

Virgo opened the door and roughly pushed Adam into it, leaving the door open so that the Doctor and Rose could get in.

"Don't even bother trying to blame me," Virgo glared at Adam. She standing by the doorway with Adam on the opposite side of her, the Doctor was piloting the TARDIS, and Rose was sitting nervously on the captain's chair. "Just because we were in charge of you doesn't mean that you can't have fault in anything. You could've killed everyone on Satellite Five - possibly the entire planet- thanks to your actions! You only got lucky that Cathica was there with us to override everything."

"I... I'm sorry," was all Adam could muster up. "I really am!"

"Say sorry all you like," Virgo scoffed as the TARDIS landed somewhere that gave Adam butterflies in his stomach. "It's not changing anything." She grabbed Adam's arm and threw him out of the TARDIS and into...

A bedroom.

Adam looked extremely relieved at the sight of it. There was his bed in the corner, the computer sitting on his desk, and even his carpet with the mustard stain on it! It was all here instead of a giant explosion in space that would kill him instantly.

"It's my house!" the 'genius' exclaimed. "I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey, I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."

The Doctor crossed his arms and glared daggers at him, "Is there anything else you want to tell us?"

"No," Adam denied quickly, his eyes glancing quickly at the phone before back on the Time Lord. "What do you mean?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked over to the phone and picked it up knowingly, "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." He took out his sonic screwdriver and flashed it at the phone, breaking it up to the point where it couldn't possibly be revived. "That's it, then. See you."

"How do you mean, 'see you?'"

"As in goodbye forever and ever," Virgo smiled darkly with a little wave. "Isn't that brilliant?"

"But what about me?" Adam complained. "You can't just go! I've got my head. I've got a chip... type two. My head opens."

"What, like this?" the Doctor smirked and snapped his fingers to open Adam's door in his head just to spite him.

He was very annoyed by this, "Don't!" He snapped his fingers to close it.

"What're you talking about?" Virgo asked innocently and stepped forward. She raised her hand, ready to snap. "Don't do what? This?" She snapped her fingers and opened up the doors. She honestly had an urge to try it out ever since she found out Adam stupidly agreed to the surgery, and since the Doctor did it why couldn't she?

"Stop it!" Adam whined and closed it.

"All right, that's enough," Rose scolded the both of them like a mother would. "Stop it." However, she bit her bottom lip and snapped her fingers. Just like Virgo, she also had the urge to do it.

"Oi!" Adam closed it once more. And that concludes the snapping battle between the time travellers and some guy called Adam Mitchell.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Rose apologized, not really sounding too sorry at all about it.

"The whole of history could have been changed because of you!" the Doctor argued, back into serious mode.

"I just wanted to help," Adam pleaded desperately and clasped his hands together.

"How was you going up to a nurse and asking about brain surgery helping anyone?!" Virgo countered angrily. She was itching to go back into the TARDIS and leave Adam alone forever, but they had to make it clear in his head that what he did was completely wrong. "That was all you. You were helping yourself by abusing the time travelling privileges."

"And... I'm sorry. I said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

"Why not?" Virgo crossed her arms with a glare. "There's nothing noticeably different about you, so you can stay here for all I care. All you have to do is stay out of the spotlight and avoid parties. If you show anyone your head, you'll be sent over to science facilities in a matter of seconds. _Have fun with it_."

"But I want to come with you."

"I only take the best," the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS. "I've got Virgo and Rose." He stepped inside and Virgo was right behind him; Rose stayed in Adam's room.

Downstairs, the front door to the two-story house opened up and a girl with dark brown hair carrying three shopping bags. She was unaware of the visitors in her son's room so she carried on with shutting the door with her foot and placing the car keys on the side table.

"Rose," Adam breathed, horrified to hear his mother. "Rose. Oh, my God." He gave her a puppy-dog face to make her feel bad, but it wasn't really working because she was inching toward the TARDIS.

"Who's that?" Adam's mother shouted suspiciously, having heard his voice. "Geoff, is that you?"

"It's me, Mum," Adam shouted back to her. "Don't come in. Wait there a minute."

"Oh, my Lord," his mother smiled excitedly and placed the bags on the floor. "You never told me you were coming home! Hold on, I'll just take my coat off. You should've told me you were coming home. I would've got your favourite tea in."

"Rose, take me with you," Adam begged her for one last time.

Rose only stared at him oddly, silently asking if he was seriously wondering if he could still come. She slowly opened the door and went inside, closing the door afterward. Now that the blonde was in the blue box, the Time Lords could dematerialize the box.

"Hey, what's that noise?" Adam's mother wondered aloud, her voice coming closer and closer to the bedroom. "Have you left the back door open? Blimey, there's a draft." The bedroom door opened by the time the TARDIS was completely gone.

Inside the doorframe stood a proud-looking woman, having no idea of what Adam had done. "What a surprise. Oh, let me look at you. Oh, six months. It's like I saw you yesterday. Isn't it funny? The time goes by like that." She snapped her fingers to add character in her last sentence... and was absolutely horrified when Adam's head opened up.

Well, Adam, time to catch your mother before she faints and be prepared for a hour-long explanation.

A/N: We're _finally_ done with Long Game and now we can move onto Father's Day! I have a brilliant twist for that episode and I wish I could see your reactions when it happens. I'm not even going to hint at what it's going to be but I can tell you it's going to be in the first part of the episode, so the next chapter :D I am also going to say that I regret nothing at all.

I also threw in a little reference from Dark Water in the first paragraph. I watched the two-parter in the theaters a day or two before The Magician's Apprentice was aired so I thought why not? If you want to, let me know if you find it or not. It was something that Missy said and it wasn't a huge thing, so it might be a little hard.


	23. Father's Day: Confusions in Relations

" _Peter Alan Tyler, my dad, the most wonderful man in the world. Born 15th September 1954."_

.l.l.l.

 _A six-year old Rose Tyler with blonde hair that reached up to her shoulders and in purple clothes, and carrying a stuffed animal peeked into her mother's room in innocent curiosity. Jackie was sitting on the bed with a photo album in her lap, turning the pages with a sad smile plastered on her face._

 _When Jackie spotted her daughter, her smile brightened up a little and patted on the bed for Rose to come and sit with her, "Come here, Rose. Come here."_

 _Rose hesitated before bringing her short legs into a run and climbed onto the bed with a bit of difficulty. Once Jackie was sure she was settled in, she showed her the photo album._

" _Who's that?" Jackie asked her and pointed to a small picture of a man. He barely had any blonde hair on his head and brown eyes, and he was smiling broadly. "It's your daddy. You weren't old enough to remember when he died. 1987, 7th of November. Do you remember what I told you? The day that Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke got married. He was always having adventures. Oh, he would have loved to see you now."_

 _Jackie moved some rogue strands of hair out of Rose's face while the daughter merely looked down at her father's smiling face, hoping that he was smiling away somewhere else._

.l.l.l.

"That's what Mum always says," Rose finished up her story of her father to the two Time Lords. "So I was thinking... could we? Could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?"

She was leaning against the console with crossed arms, Virgo was sitting down and nearly hogging up the entire captain's chair so the Doctor had to lean on the chair. It was a long story and Virgo had grown tired of standing, so that was why she was sitting in the middle of the chair with her hands on either side of her.

Virgo stared at the blonde human suspiciously, "When did you come up with this idea?"

"All right then," Rose sighed and fiddled with something on the console for no apparent reason, "if we can't, if it goes against the laws of time or something, then never mind, just leave it."

"It's not against the laws as long as you don't do anything that will change his future," Virgo shrugged. "It's you that I'm being concerned about."

"I want to see him," Rose decided confidently, staring at Virgo straight in the eye to prove that she really wanted to do this. All she ever got were stories and pictures of him, never anything with videos. Jackie had thrown away all the videos about him because she was so upset about his death. Who's to say that Pete was an even greater man than what Jackie had informed her about?

"Your wish is my command," the Doctor said cheekily. "But be careful what you wish for!" He moved around the chair and held out his hands to Virgo so he could help her stand up. She gladly took the offered hands and he pulled her up to stand. Then the both of them turned to the console to fly to a wedding chapel.

.l.l.l.

The trio were sitting safely in the very back of the register's office - yes, not a wedding chapel - to witness first-hand the wedding of Jacqueline Prentice and Peter Tyler. Jackie was wearing a lovely, pale pink wedding dress with a lot less wrinkles on her face while Pete was in a shiny, black suit with a black tie. There were only a few people in the room, so Rose could only imagine that her parents had wanted a private wedding.

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Angela Suzette Prentice...," the registrar trailed off for Pete to repeat the words.

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline...," Pete said slowly and frowned. "Suzanne..." Jackie's happy smile faltered into an angry look while the registrar raised an eyebrow at him. "Suzette... Anita..."

"Oh, just carry on," Jackie brushed it off, but still looked quite peeved about it. "It's good enough for Lady Di."

Meanwhile, the Doctor was quietly chuckling at the mess-up Pete managed to do. The Time Lord may have not had a happy marriage with his dead wife, but even he could remember her full name.

Rose, on the other hand, was hardly listening to the wedding vows; she was staring intently at her father while chewing on her finger nails. Virgo was frowning at the soon-to-be-married couple in confusion, unsure why the both of them were going through with the wedding if they looked uncomfortable and angry with each other. Either it was too soon for them to get married, or that was how humans always acted around the people they loved. She'd never understand.

"I thought he'd be taller," Rose murmured randomly.

"To be my lawful wedded wife, to love and behold 'till death us do part," the registrar continued with the vows.

.l.l.l.

" _He died so close to home," Jackie the widow mused sadly while looking at the wall. Six-year old Rose was still leaning next to her. "I wasn't there. Nobody was. It was a hit-and-run driver. Never found out who. He was dead when the ambulance got there. I only wish there'd been_ someone _there for him."_

.l.l.l.

"I want to be that someone," the present-day Rose said determinedly back in the TARDIS console room, "so he doesn't die alone."

Neither Time Lord could argue with her, so they turned back to the console.

"November the 7th?" the Doctor asked for confirmation. He was in charge of setting the date while Virgo was working on the dematerialization process.

"1987," Rose added with a slight nod and bit her lip nervously. She stepped back and watched the aliens navigate the TARDIS to the exact time and place where her own father died. She wasn't very excited because she had already seen Pete flesh and bone; she was scared. She didn't know if she could even do it, stay by his side as he died.

.l.l.l.

The trio stepped out of the box and onto an empty, abandoned sidewalk on a sunny morning. It was as if life knew exactly what this day meant for the poor human, and so it made the day as cheerful and happy as possible. There were hardly any clouds in the sky, just the sun shining brightly just to tease Rose.

Of course, Rose caught on the weather immediately, "It's so weird... The day my father died. I thought it'd be all sort of grim and stormy; it's just an ordinary day."

"People die everyday," Virgo looked around to get a view of her surroundings, studying every detail. "If it was stormy every time someone died, the Earth would be flooded." She looked back at Rose with concern. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's not going to be easy; we can always leave and do something that's even happier than this."

"No, I want to," Rose shook her head quickly. She looked at the road signs to see what street they were on so she could find Jordan Road and get there on time for the... thing.

After walking for about ten minutes, they finally arrived at the scene. It was just an ordinary road with shops, sidewalks, and a park not far from here; there was even a fire hydrant.

"This is it," Rose announced and stood by the fire hydrant, looking both ways for a green car to come parking close to here. "Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present: a vase." She chuckled sadly. "Mum always said, that stupid vase."

The green van that belonged to none other than Pete Tyler appeared around the corner and parked a few feet away from the trio.

"He got out of his car..." Pete parked the car and took off his seatbelt, "and crossed the road. Oh, God. This is it."

Virgo took hold of Rose's hand and squeezed it tightly for comfort, but a simple hand squeeze could never compare to something as forever as death. Pete opened the car door and got out of the car, carrying a lovely vase with a pale pink ribbon tied around the hole.

A beige car sped around the same corner that Pete had just come from, and this went unnoticed by the man himself. By the time Pete was in the middle of the road, Rose had turned her head away so she didn't have to see the gruesome horror be played out. She flinched when she heard glass break and a grunt from a man, so she eventually forced herself to look back at the road. Pete was lying on his back, not yet dead; he was twitching his arms and legs to try and keep himself alive, but he wouldn't have long.

"Go to him, quick," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear urgently.

Rose shook her head as two tears rolled down her cheeks. She backed away further from the road and eventually ran away somewhere with the Time Lords following after her.

.l.l.l.

They found an alley close to where Pete was lying down, and Rose was on the ground crying her eyes out and her only comfort was Virgo wrapping her arms around her and rocking her gently. It was starting to become an instinct to Virgo: comforting anyone that was crying.

The sound of sirens was heard in the distance, and Rose cried even harder because of this.

"It's too late now," she sobbed. "By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead. He can't die on his own. Can I try again?"

The Time Lords exchanged glances with each other, both of them thinking the exact same thing: it was a bad idea, like a really bad idea. First of all, they'd have to avoid making contact with their past selves otherwise the universe would implode or something; second of all what if Rose did something stupid that would change her father's fate? It was entirely plausible, but this would be the only time Rose could ever make contact with him, even if he didn't know who she was.

.l.l.l.

The Time Lords must have given in because they were back on Jordan Road, hidden behind a wall so that their past selves wouldn't see them. Rose looked more prepared this time than last time now that all her tears had been shed, she was more determined than upset. It's go time, people!

"Right, that's the first you and me," the Doctor quietly explained to Rose so she wouldn't mess anything up. "It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait 'till she runs and they follow, then go to your dad."

Rose pursued her lips as her confidence slowly deflated as she watched Pete pull up to the sidewalk and unbuckle. This was just unfair! Why didn't he know about the "look both ways before you cross the road" saying? If he had looked right then and there, she'd at least remember him long enough before something else killed him, and that's what she was really after here: an actual relationship with him. She wanted a hug from him, she wanted a kiss on the forehead, and even a little picnic at the park every once in awhile.

"I can't do this," Rose shook her head with a swallow.

"That's okay," Virgo actually smiled in relief of this and grabbed the human's hand. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to. Let's go." The Time Lady started to drag her away, but Rose did the impossible: she got her hand out of the grip.

As soon as she was free, Rose turned back toward the road where Pete was now walking to the middle of the road and the beige car appearing around the corner, and sprinted like her life depended on it. The present Time Lords shouted her name while the past Time Lords and a past Rose stared at the present Rose in shock. The present Rose scrambled over to Pete and pushed him out of the way of the beige car and both of them landed on the concrete road, which probably hurt quite a bit. The vase rolled back over to the green car, still intact.

The past versions of them exchanged horrified glances with each other before disappearing in a gold light, never having existed. The present versions of the Doctor and Virgo stared at the spot where their past versions were before staring back at Rose and Pete in anger and more shock.

"I did it," Rose panted and stared at Pete with wide eyes. "I saved your life!"

"Blimey, did you see the speed of it?" Pete sat up and rolled up his sleeves, squinting at his daughter through the sunlight. "Did you get his number?"

"I really did it," Rose breathed. "Oh, my God, look at you. You're alive! That car was going to _kill you_!"

"Give me some credit," Pete waved her off, "I _did_ see it coming." Everyone knew that statement was false; if it was true, well, the time travelling trio would never be here in the first place. "I wasn't going to walk under it, was I?"

"I'm Rose," the said girl spoke quickly, barely managing not to specify that she was his daughter from the future.

"That's a coincidence; that's my daughter's name."

"That's a... great name. Good choice. Well done."

Pete stared at her oddly before looking back at his car, "Right, I'd better shift. I've got a wedding to go to."

"Is that Sarah Clarke's wedding?" Rose questioned him, but she already knew the answer. She was still in a bit of shock, so she was forgetting a few minor details; there was something else that was bothering her, too, something that had to do with two aliens from outer space...

"Yeah, are you going?" Pete looked surprised at the irony, believing that she had been invited to the wedding, too.

"Yeah," his daughter confirmed slowly. It wasn't a complete lie. Her baby self, him, and Jackie had all been invited to Sarah's wedding, so technically Rose was invited... just a little bit off in the time differential.

"Do your boyfriend and sister need a lift?" Pete pointed over to the Doctor and Virgo, who were looking... neither impressed or happy. In fact, there was probably some steam coming out of their ears if you looked closely enough, especially the Doctor because he has quite the big ears.

Rose blinked in confusion at Pete before recalling that the Time Lords had been watching them, so when she looked back at them, her happy smile slowly turned into a sheepish one.

.l.l.l.

Pete had been generous enough to give his daughter and the aliens a lift to his flat, but since this was Rose's dad he was mainly giving the aliens a lift. This was going to get confusing later on. If only he knew... Could she hint at it? She knew it'd probably be bad if she told him she was his daughter (she already saved his life and changed her past, it was damaging enough), but it would be... nice. It would be nice to feel like Pete was really her father.

Pete unlocked the door with his house keys, opened the door, and threw the keys at the side table. The trio walked in the flat next and Virgo shut the door and leaned on it with crossed arms. It would be an understatement to say that she was angry at the Doctor's companion. Her look said it all: narrowed eyes, a deep frown, and her nails digging into her panda sweater to keep herself from punching a hole in the nearest window.

"Right, there we go," Pete rambled on. "Sorry about the mess. If you want a cup of tea, the kitchen's just down there, milk's in the fridge. Well, it would be, wouldn't it? Where else would you put the milk? Mind you, there's always the window sill outside. I always thought if someone invented a window sill with special compartments, you know, one for milk, one for yogurt; make a lot of money out of that. Sell it to students and things... I should write that down. Anyway, never mind that, excuse me for a minute. Got to go and change."

Finally, Pete walked into his bedroom and shut the door. Rose took this as an opportunity to really take everything in, not one detail was missed. She didn't even remember living here because Jackie had moved to the Powell Estate due to the reminders of her dead husband. That was understandable, of course.

"All the stuff Mum kept," Rose said softly and walked over to the relics. " _His_ stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes in the cupboard. She used to show me when she'd had a bit to drink. Here it is, on display. Where it _should_ be. Third prize at the bowling. First two got to Didcot. Health drinks; tonics, Mum used to call them. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had all sorts of jobs. He was so clever. Solar power; Mum said he was going to do this. Now he can." She finally faced her fears and turned back to the Time Lords. "Okay, look I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend or sister."

"When we met, I said travel with me in space," the Doctor started the argument off calmly. "You said no. Then Virgo said _time machine_..."

Rose rolled her eyes, "It wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought... I can stop it." And that was true. She hadn't even thought about saving Pete when Virgo said time machine; it was just that she could get home 12 hours after she left so she didn't have to abandon her mother and Mickey. Standing there and hearing that vase drop... that was when she realized there was something she could do.

"I did it again," the Doctor chuckled darkly. "I picked another stupid ape. I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe, it never is; it's about the universe doing something _for_ you."

"So it's okay when you go to other times and you save people's lives, but not when it's me saving my dad?" Rose narrowed her eyes at him.

"I know what I'm doing," the Doctor took a step forward, " _you_ don't. Two sets of us being there made that a vulnerable point."

"But he's alive!" Rose gestured to her father's bedroom as if to prove her point.

"At least you could get a glimpse of him being alive," Virgo countered in a soft tone, unlike the Doctor. "Our planet burned to ashes. Everything on that planet is gone, _my entire family_. You could at least see how your father lived his life, but not with us. We're forced to keep our families alive in our memories, and you have no idea how hard that is. Do you think, not once, that it never occurred to either of us to break through the time lock and save someone?"

"But it's not like I've changed history," Rose sighed, not liking how Virgo was trying to make her pity her. "Not much. I mean he's never going to be a world leader, he's not going to start World War III or anything."

"Rose, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before," the Doctor said angrily. "An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world is different because he's alive."

"What, would you rather him dead?"

"I'm not saying that."

"No, I get it! For once, you're not the most important man in my life."

That was the final straw for the Doctor, "Let's see how you get on without me, then. Give me the key. The TARDIS key. If I'm so insignificant, give it back."

Rose fished out the golden key from her back pocket and slammed it on his offered hand, "All right then, I will!"

"How about we-" Virgo tried to add something that would benefit both sides of the argument, but the two of them were so deep in it that they ignored her.

"You've got what you wanted, so that's goodbye then," the Doctor stated knowingly.

"Maybe we should take a deep breath-" Virgo attempted once more, but failed again.

"You don't scare me," Rose scoffed and followed the Doctor to the front door, him dragging Virgo along. "I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute, or you'll hang around outside the TARDIS waiting for me. And I'll make you wait a long time!"

The Doctor slammed the door shut and Rose collapsed onto the couch in frustration. Pete opened the door and poked his head out around the doorway innocently. He may or may not have overheard half the argument, but there wasn't really anything he could do to tune it out. The both of them were shouting so loudly that everyone in the world could hear them.

"Boyfriend trouble?" he asked and Rose chuckled with the shake of her head.

.l.l.l.

"No, no, no, we've got to go back," Virgo resisted the Doctor's tugging on her. Half her body was facing the direction of Pete's flat, and the Doctor's was facing her body. He had two hands holding her one hand and pulling as hard as he could, and she was trying to walk back toward the flat.

To everyone else, it looked like they were playing tug-a-war.

"We don't need to go back," the Doctor strained. "She made her choice about saving Pete, so that's good riddance to her."

"Nope," Virgo managed to take a full step toward her chosen direction before taking two steps backward from the Doctor's force. On any other day, she would have loved to play this game with him, but today was a day full of seriousness. "We've got to go back."

"Why?" the Doctor stared at her as though she had two heads.

"Because you both need to apologize," Virgo now stared at him that way. "Rose more than you, but you still said rude things to her." She only added the bit about Gallifrey being gone because when Rose saved Pete, it reminded her of her mother and it broke her hearts.

"I've got nothing to apologize for," the Doctor disagreed with her. "I had a right to be rude back there, and I think you know that."

"Okay, fine," Virgo rolled her eyes. "Maybe you don't need to apologize, but I don't want to see two friends ruining a beautiful friendship. Let's call it even with each other and have a great big hug."

"I'm not gonna-" the Doctor was about to make an objection when a screeching sound was heard above them.

They both looked up and saw what looked like a cross between a lizard, dragon, and a bat. It had bat wings but were three times the size of it, a dragon's face and tail, and a dark brown lizard's texture. It was a Reaper.

It circled the Time Lords while the said people were frozen in shock, their argument completely forgotten about. Once it was above Virgo, the Reaper made a dive for her with a murderous shriek that signaled it was about to eat her, like it wasn't obvious enough. Virgo was still frozen, so she didn't have time to move... so somebody else moved her: the Doctor. He shouted a, "No!" and shoved the Time Lady out of the way so the Reaper would choose to eat him instead of her.

The Time Lady landed with an _oomph!_ and by the time she sat up from lying on the ground, the Reaper had devoured the Time Lord and flew back up into the sky, leaving the former prey to her devices. She looked back to where the Doctor had last been seen and slowly crawled over to the designated place. She placed a hand on the spot and a tear landed on the pavement as she noticed something disturbing: her mind was silent. There was no buzzing feeling in the back of her head... it was silent. It was awfully silent.

The Doctor was gone. She was now the only Time Lord left in existence.

A/N: o.o I told you there was some twist coming up in this chapter! I hope this answered time-twilight's question(?) on this particular episode ;) It's beautiful, isn't it? This idea has been crawling around in my mind for awhile now and I needed to get it out of my head, and now it's here! *happy dance* Hope you like the twist!

Also, I totally had a Doctor Who moment after school. My mom showed me this little Mickey Mouse tiny sculpture thingy and told me that she walked into CVS and an employee gave her the sculpture thingy because someone came in and gave it to him, so he gave it to my mom because she was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt. I told her that it could have been a future version of her or me and it was either of us that gave it to the employee to give to her and create an endless paradox. Highly doubt that's true, but it would be so awesome if that was. Talk about ironic.


	24. Father's Day: Mourning

Virgo could faintly hear the Reaper's roar in the distance, but she was too upset over the Doctor to pay any attention to it. The silence in her mind was agony and she would probably be scratching her head like crazy if she wasn't so focused on the pavement. It would be a very good idea now to start warning Rose and everyone else about the Reapers... but there was something she still had to do.

Slowly with shaky hands, the Time Lady reached up and took off her sun hat, kissed the top of it, then placed it on the spot where the Doctor was last seen. Her grief suddenly turned into fury and there was only one other thing on her mind besides the Doctor: revenge.

Not revenge on Rose because the girl was human and she didn't know any better, but revenge on the Reapers. _No one_ took away the Doctor from her without permission, and for that she was _furious_. The only problem was that she didn't even know where to begin on defeating the Reapers besides Pete stepping in front of a car and die like history wanted him to. Even now she didn't want Rose to have no father anymore after going through nineteen years without him.

Virgo then stood up with clenched fists and started running toward the church where Sarah and Stuart were going to get married at. She was almost certain Rose would be sticking to her father's side and he had to go to a wedding, so she'd be there.

.l.l.l.

Unaware of what was happening outside, Rose was in the passenger front seat in Pete's car, driving to Sarah and Stuart's wedding. Rose didn't look very happy even when her father, back from the dead, was sitting right next to her and taking her to a place; that never really happened to her before, and that would be because it would be hard for someone to drive you to a place if they were dead. She was not a happy camper because she didn't have the TARDIS key in her pocket anymore and the box itself was probably gone along with the Time Lords.

"I met this bloke at the horse's, and he's cutting me in on copyright," Pete was saying to her, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Rose blinked and stared at him oddly, "But I thought you were a proper businessman and that."

"I wish!" Pete scoffed, as if it was absurd for him to be a proper businessman. "Oh, I do a bit of this, a bit of that. I scrape by."

"Right," Rose nodded slowly with a thoughtful expression. She knew that some details her mother told her about Pete were probably exaggerated... but this was disappointing. "So... I must've heard wrong. So, really you're a bit of Del Boy?"

"Oh, shoot me down in flames," Pete laughed. "You're not related to my wife by any chance, are you?"

Avoiding the question, Rose widened her eyes suddenly, "Oh, my God. She's going to be at the wedding."

"What, Jackie? Do you know her?"

"... Sort of."

"What's she told you about me, then?"

Rose smiled faintly and said, "She said she'd picked the most fantastic man in the world." Oh, wow. She said 'fantastic.' She must've caught the 'fantastic' disease from the Doctor.

"Must be a different Jackie, then," Pete sighed. "She'd _never_ say that." He then reached out to the radio and changed the song, a _rap_ song. He smirked and started tapping his hands on the steering wheel to the beat. "This stuff goes right over my head."

Rose leaned in toward the radio to take a closer look at the song title, "That's not out yet..."

"It's a good job and all."

"I'm just going to check my messages...," Rose muttered and took her cell phone out from her pocket and turned it on.

"How do you mean, messages?" Pete frowned at the word use and glanced at his daughter's phone before looking back at the road. "Is that a phone?" If that was a phone, he was quite surprised at how tiny it was.

Not knowing what else to say, she only said, "Yeah." She put the phone up to her ear and waited for either the Doctor or Virgo to pick up the phone in the TARDIS, hoping that they weren't too angry at her anymore to at least hear her out. Instead of an alien, it was some guy's voice coming through.

" _Watson, come here_ ," the voice said. " _I need you. Watson, come here. I need you. Watson, come here. I need you_."

Rose frowned at the phone before hanging up and putting the phone back in her pocket. Meanwhile, the beige car that should have killed poor Pete turned a corner and travelled behind them, speeding up dangerously close. Seeing this, Pete turned a corner and the beige car continued straight before it vanished into a gold light.

.l.l.l.

The father of the groom was using the telephone, unlike Rose, and was talking to someone on the other side of the line. He wasn't yet at all affected by the Watson phone call just yet, so that wasn't why he was grumpy. It was because his son was getting married to someone he got pregnant about three months ago, and the dad was _not_ happy to approve of this at all. When he and Sarah first met, he thought she was a lovely person and was a nice fit for Stuart, but the whole pregnancy was where he crossed the line.

"Half the guests haven't turned up," he grumbled into the phone. "You're better off not being here, it's a disaster in the making. No, in this case, 'knocked her up' is a phrase I'd use."

" _Watson, come here_ ," the same voice that spoke to Rose came through, and by Stuart's dad's reaction, this wasn't the someone he was talking to. " _I need you._ "

"Who is this?" Stuart's dad narrowed his eyes at the glass window in suspicion.

" _Watson, come here. I ne_ -"

The mysterious voice never finished its sentence because Stuart's dad hung up the phone, simply thinking that someone hacked into the phone call and did a crank call on him. He attempted to redial, but his son came running over to him in panic from the church nearby.

"Dad, get inside," Stuart urged him and his dad placed the phone back into its casket. "We can't see the bride before the wedding. It's back luck."

"It was bad luck when you met her!" Stuart's dad whined but allowed his son to drag him back into the church to hide from Sarah. "I tell you, this day is cursed."

Just as they made it inside, a large black car turned the corner and arrived alongside the church entrance. Even though at this time period the invention of the car was still relatively new, and even though it didn't look like a Ferrari, it was probably quite expensive to hire a driver to drive this particular car.

A few ladies - one of them being the bride, Sarah - stepped out of the car with excitement and perhaps some nervousness from the bride. Jackie was still sitting in the car to make sure that Baby Rose was all settled in her carry cot before she leaving with her friends.

"Now, that's what I call a meringue," Bev laughed, carrying on the conversation that the four of them had while sitting in the car.

"Listen, Stuart's dad said and go round the block 'cos there's people missing," a woman by the name of Suzie told the bride, and she said it more like a joke because they all knew better than to believe a single word that came from the dad's lips.

However, Sarah took it seriously, "How do you mean, missing?"

"There's no Dave, no Sunita, no Bea," Bev scanned the tiny crowd that was heading inside the church to take their seats. Some people stayed outside to enjoy the sunshine that was meant to mock Pete's death.

"There's no one from the Lamb and Flag," Suzie added.

"Oh, my train's detached again," Sarah placed a hand on her forehead in anxiety. "I _knew_ I should've used Velcro!"

Jackie popped her head out from the car finally with a soft smile plastered across her face, Sarah's antics only reminding her of her own wedding from a few years ago, "I'm here. Stop your bellyaching. Take Rose a sec, will you?"

Sarah reached out and took the handle of the carry cot and gently moved it out of the car so that Jackie could fix herself up and shut the car door tightly. Bev and Suzie immediately went into awe-mode at the sight of seeing Sarah carrying a carry cot, something that the bride would be doing later on.

"Oh, ain't she pretty?" Bev cooed at Rose and the said baby gurgled at her.

"She's a little madam, that's what she is," Jackie declared fondly and walked around the back of the car. "Oh, I need more hands. Where's her useless article of a dad got to?"

Pete turned his car around the corner and before he could park it alongside the church, the beige car suddenly appeared in a golden light and drove straight at him. Rose saw the beige car before her father, so on instinct, she panicked.

"Dad!" she cried and gripped the car door and her seat, prepared to be in a car crash.

Pete looked away from the radio just in time to see the car in the front window. He gripped the wheel tighter and swerved the car into the sidewalk, barely missing a thin tree and the beige car. The car continued on straight before it disappeared in the same gold light that it had appeared from.

"It's that car," Pete realized and tried to look behind his headrest to try and get another look at the murder car, but it was too late. He unbuckled himself and got out of the car without consulting Rose to see if she was okay. "Same one as before. It was right in front of us. Where's he gone?" And that's when he realized what Rose had said a few seconds ago. "You called me Dad. What'd you say that for?"

Jackie stormed over to the two of them, unintentionally saving her daughter from explaining to Pete potential lies, "Oh, wonderful. Here he is, the accident _waiting_ to happen. You'd be late for your own funeral and it nearly was!"

Rose winced at Jackie's words, distinctly reminding her of the beige car that was supposed to kill Pete.

"No damage done," the said man pointed to his car, his tone sounding like he had this argument with Jackie everyday.

"And who's this?" Jackie nodded her head at a grown Rose, still holding a baby Rose in her arms. "What're you looking at with your mouth open?"

Rose was indeed openly gaping at Jackie, who had her hair put tightly into a complicated hairstyle and was wearing a pale pink dress and a few less wrinkles than the present day Jackie.

"Your hair," was all she could muster up without really thinking about it.

"What?!"

"I've never seen it like...," Rose spoke slowly, ignoring the fact that Jackie was offended by her comment. "I mean... it's lovely. And that baby you're holding..." She took a few steps closer to her baby self, and Jackie took a few steps back and protectively shielded her daughter... from her daughter... Ooh, very complicated very quickly. "That would be your baby..."

"Another one of yours, is she?" Jackie sneered at her husband, not knowing what to make of Rose except for thinking that she was a bit... not sane.

"She saved my life!" Pete argued with her.

"Oh, that's a new one," Jackie rolled her eyes. "What was it last time?"

"I didn't even know her. She was a cloakroom attendant. I was helping her look for my ticket. There were three duffel coats all the same. Somehow the rack collapsed. We were under all this stuff."

Rose turned to look at her father with narrowed eyes, "Were you playing around?"

Jackie turned on her, "What's it got to do with you what he gets up to?"

"What does he get up to?"

"You'd know," Jackie shrugged sternly and glared daggers at Pete.

"Oh, 'cos I'm _that_ stupid," Pete stated sarcastically, completely annoyed with both of them. "I play around and I bring her to meet the missus. You silly cow."

"But you _are_ that stupid," Jackie countered the argument... and that could have sounded better in her head because that insult is just weak. Way to be creative, Jackie. Ten points to Pete.

"Can we keep this stuff back home just for now?" Pete shot right back at her.

"What, with the rest of the rubbish?" Jackie scoffed. "You bring home cut-price detergents, tonic water, Betamax tapes, and none of it works. I'm drowning in your rubbish." She turned to Rose. "What did he tell you? Did he say he's this big business man, 'cos he's not. He's a failure. Born failure, that one. Rose needs a proper father, not one who's flannelling about like some big kid."

"Jackie, I'm making a living," Pete rubbed his face with his hand. "It keeps us fed, don't it?"

"Stop it!" Rose shouted loudly, grabbing the attention from not just her parents but some other people that were eavesdropping on them. She panted and looked back and forth between Mommy and Daddy with heartbreak written all over her face. "You're not like this. You love each other!"

"Oh, Pete," Jackie smiled darkly at him. "You never used to like them mental. Or I don't know, maybe you _did_!" She huffed and walked back toward the church, clutching Baby Rose tightly to her body.

"Jackie, wait, just listen," Pete took a few steps forward to go after her, but what Jackie said next made him stop in his tracks.

"If you're not careful, there'll be a wedding _and_ a divorce on the same day," the wife said harshly before continuing on her long trek to the church.

Pete let out a frustrated sigh before taking the car keys out of his pocket and handed them to Rose, "Wait here. Give us a couple of minutes with the missus. Tell you what, straighten the car up. Stick it round the corner or something. Don't cause anymore trouble." He then ran off to try and calm down Jackie and perhaps make a move to save their marriage while clutching the unbroken vase close to him.

.l.l.l.

One of the Reapers was flying above a local park close to where the church was, and since it was so close to the church, a mother that was attending the wedding took three boys to it. She was pushing her son, Mickey, on the swings while the two other boys were playing on the seesaw and all of them were wearing formal clothes. Mickey had a little bow tie around his neck and that was only because a certain someone had told him that bow ties were cool, and who was he to argue with his elder?

After watching someone getting attacked by one of the Reapers on the sidewalk, Mickey turned his head back to his friends to inform them, "Hey, Jack, Jeff."

But when he looked at the seesaw, the boys were nowhere to be seen. They had recently left because the seesaw was still bouncing away and was slowly fading to a stop. Mickey frowned deeply at this and that was when he realized that no one was pushing his back on the swing, so he started to run out of fear.

.l.l.l.

Pete had caught up to an angry Jackie and was in the middle of convincing her that everything was alright and there was nothing to fret over. He knew the basics of what to say to her already in his head even before he walked away from Rose because the two of them had already had this argument a dozen times before.

Jackie was being as stubborn as she always was, "I'm not listening. It's just the duffel coats all over again."

"Jackie, sometimes a duffel coat is just a duffel coat," Pete pointed out to her calmly and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Things will get better soon, I promise."

"I've had enough of your daft schemes," Jackie glared up at him but didn't step away. "I never know where the next meal's coming from."

"I'll get it right, love," Pete promised her honestly. "One day soon, I promise you, I'll get it right. Come on." He took her hand and started to head back inside the church, but a little boy's shouts was what made them stop in their tracks.

"Monsters!" it was Mickey, and Rose recognized him right away from the photo albums she managed to find at his flat. She grew a soft smile at this and watched him run into the church. "Going to eat us!"

Suzie chased after him, her always being the one to check up on the youngsters, "What sort of monsters, sweetheart? Is it aliens?"

"Rose!" a voice shouted behind the said girl, so she instinctively turned around and saw Virgo dashing toward her. Rose then grew a smirk, not realizing that Virgo wasn't coming back specifically for her but to save everyone standing outside. "Get in the church!"

Rose's grin faded away and a screech above her was the next thing that caught her attention. A Reaper - possibly the one from the park - was diving straight at her with its claws wide, ready to pick her up and do... something with her. Eat her or take her some place where it could eat her later, no one really knew. The point was that it was going to eat her.

Just before the Reaper could reach her, Virgo managed to push Rose out of the way and the Reaper soared back up in the sky with an angry growl. The Time Lady quickly stood back up and helped the Doctor's companion up on her two feet before running to the small crowd that was currently panicking at the sight of the Reapers.

"Everyone, shut up and listen to me!" Virgo yelled at them over the sound of terrified screams and gasps. "Into the church right now!"

A few people had the sense to listen to her and get to safety, but a lot of people were still running around on the grass like a herd of sheep trying to escape the hungry wolf. The Reapers took this opportunity to pounce on some of the wedding guests and eat them alive.

"Sarah!" Stuart ran outside from the church toward his soon-to-be wife, but someone held him back only because they didn't want him to meet a horrible fate.

Stuart's dad, having also been in the church, ran outside and stayed along the walls in hopes to get somewhere where he'd feel more safe, but the only thing that happened because of this was him getting eaten by a Reaper. Sarah had a similar idea of running but instead of away from the church, she was running toward it. About halfway there, a Reaper dropped from the sky and landed in front of her with a screech. Sarah screamed and the Reaper pounced on the vicar nearby instead of pouncing on her.

Virgo took Sarah's hand and dragged her toward the church after seeing that the bride was too paralyzed with fear, and Rose was not far behind them. The only thing that the blonde human was worried about was where the Doctor was; the two aliens were almost never separated from each other... so what happened?

Once everyone that was still alive was in the church, Virgo and a few other people quickly slammed the large doors shut and boarded it up so that the Reapers couldn't break through. They could still be seen through the glass pane windows as blurry figures, but you could still make out what they looked like: a giant bird.

"Okay, okay, good," Virgo panted and nodded with wide eyes. "They can't get in. It's old. Everything in here's old. The older something is, the stronger they'll have to try to break through it." She spun around on her heel and faced the panicked friends and family. "Check the doors, make sure everything is locked tightly." When nobody moved to do so, she clapped her hands loudly. "Now! Move it!"

A few of the grownups stood up from the benches and ran to the back of the church to make sure that the back doors were firmly shut, and Jackie strutted up to the Time Lady.

"What's happening?" she questioned quickly. "What are they? What are they?"

"Something's happened to time and the creatures outside are here to mess it up even more," Virgo explained just as quickly and ran to the windows to see how old they really were.

"What do you mean, time?" Jackie followed her with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What're you jabbering on about, time?"

"Jackie, I don't have time for this," Virgo argued.

This only made Jackie even more frantic, "How do you know my name?"

"Jackie-"

"I've never met you in my life!"

Virgo jumped down from the ledge and leaned in close to Jackie's face with a look that would give people nightmares, similar to the Doctor's Oncoming Storm look but not nearly as threatening, "Go. And. Check. The. Doors."

Jackie swallowed hard and backed away, "Yes, ma'am." She firmly nodded and ran off to help the other adults board up the little wooden things.

Now that Jackie was out of the way, Stuart walked up to the Time Lady, "My dad was out there."

"Great, we can start a club dedicated to mourning loved ones," Virgo said sarcastically. "I can be the club leader. Not now, but later."

"My dad had-" Stuart began but was rudely cut off.

"Yes, I know and I'm sorry, but I can't save him," Virgo put in exasperatedly. "If I could go back in time and save someone, I'd have already done it by now."

"No, but he had this phone thing," Stuart handed her his dad's phone and she put it up to her ear with a frown. "I can't get it to work. I keep getting this... voice."

The same voice that had spoken through this phone and Rose's cell phone was still saying the same two sentences on loop, and Virgo immediately knew what is was, "Okay, so we've got the very first phone call playing on loop. That's nice that they gave you a little history lesson right there." She gave Stuart back the phone.

"But someone must have called the police."

Virgo laughed darkly, "The police? What're the police gonna do, shoot it? Nothing can harm those things, nothing in the universe. Time's been damaged and they've come to sterilise the wound by consuming _everything_ inside. If you're not going to give me anything useful, then shoo." She collapsed on the closest bench and put her face on her hands, the Doctor's death and the silence in her mind coming back to her all over again.

"Is this because...," Rose wondered aloud right next to her, looking very worried at the Time Lady and the lack of the Doctor's presence. "Is this my fault?"

Virgo didn't answer, but the both of them already knew that it was.

"Virgo, where's the Doctor?" Rose asked, not able to not know the answer any longer.

The Time Lady looked up with a shiny tear rolling down her cheek, "Do you honestly want me to say it? No, I need to be distracted. I can't cry now. Everyone will die if I do." She suddenly stood up and pointed at Rose in an accusing manner. "Why did you let me stay still? I don't like crying, crying is rubbish. I hate it. No, more importantly, why did I let you save your dad?"

Rose winced and watched the Time Lady walk away with clenched fists, walking through an arch and disappeared from view. Okay, so maybe Rose did mess up... big time... and it was even worse than when Adam messed up on Satellite Five, but her dad's alive, right? That's the plus side that wouldn't last very long, but it's still something. What would the Doctor say to her? He'd probably say that it was all her fault that people were dying outside and all over the world, and that everyone inside the church are the last people alive in the entire world.

Through the arch that Virgo had went through, Pete was staring out the window and surveying the state of the outside world. Trash cans were turned over, cars were flipped on the sidewalk, a pram was upside down with the wheels still spinning faintly, and some smoke in the distance.

"There's smoke coming up from the city but no sirens," he muttered, unaware that Virgo was behind him. "I don't think it's just us; I think these things are all over the place. Maybe the whole world..."

Once again, the beige car appeared from around the corner and drove parallel to the church before the driver covered his face with his elbow and disappeared in a golden light. After a few seconds, the car reappeared again and drove on the road before disappearing once more. The car was on loop.

"Was that a car?" Pete squinted his eyes to try to see the beige car more clearly.

"It's just time messed up," Virgo waved him off and pulled the curtains together to block Pete's view of the window. "A lot of other things are messed up. You know how weird the universe can be." She grabbed Pete's hand and dragged him over to the arch and pointed at his older daughter, who was standing by the alter. "Between you and me, you look like you've got something to say to that girl over there and I think I already know what it is, so why are you delaying?" She pushed Pete in Rose's direction, then went back to the room for something to do.

Pete grabbed a bench nearby to steady himself from the forceful push, then straightened his tie and walked over to Rose because he _did_ have something he wanted to say, "This mate of yours. What did she mean by, this is your fault?"

Rose shrugged absently and didn't meet his eyes, "Don't know. Just everything."

"I gave you my car keys," Pete sighed and put his hands in his pockets. Rose raised an eyebrow and finally looked him in the eye, unsure of where he was going with this. "You don't give your car keys to a complete stranger. It's... it's like I trusted you. Moment I met you, I just... did. 'Wound in time.' You called me Dad. I can see it. My eyes, Jackie's attitude. You sound like her when you shout. You are." He formed a soft smile and cupped his daughter cheek, and she leaned into it with closed eyes and sniffles. "You _are_. You're my Rose. You're my Rose all grown up."

Rose started to sob and the two of them shared a hug, her first hug with her dad since she could remember.

"Dad," she clutched Pete tighter as if he was about to fade away from her. "My dad. My daddy."

Meanwhile, a Reaper was trying to force its way in by headbutting a door in the backroom, but when it saw that there was no physical way of entry, it scowled angrily and flew off into the sky. Virgo watched it go through a window with crossed arms and a fierce glare.

"Excuse me, Miss...," Stuart said as he and Sarah arrived at the Time Lady's side with frantic looks.

"Virgo," the Time Lady grumbled and didn't turn her head to meet the newlyweds. Hardly the time to worry about wedding vows; it was the end of the world, no time to get married.

"You seem to know what's going on," Stuart pointed out with hopes that the world could be saved after all if someone had experience in this, but his hopes were quickly crushed because...

"I know as much as anyone else here regarding the Reapers, more or less," Virgo chuckled darkly with the shake of her head. "They're just vicious animals with low intelligence."

"I just wanted to ask-" Stuart began but was cut off.

"Can you save us?" Sarah blurted out, causing Virgo to stiffen and finally turn her head to look at them. This was supposed to be the best day of Sarah and Stuart's life, not the day where everyone died as well as all life on Earth except for the Reapers. If she didn't know any better, it was as if the universe had sided with Stuart's dad on this day being cursed.

The first thing that Virgo laid eyes on was Sarah's large belly, clearly with child. The Time Lady swallowed hard and subconsciously rubbed a hand on her own stomach that was slightly curvy now.

"Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke, am I right?" she asked for confirmation, and the fiancés both nodded. She then directed her eyes back on Sarah's stomach. "Then who's the little one?"

Sarah smiled and rubbed her hands across her stomach affectionately, "Haven't sorted out the names, really. We're waiting until it's born to name it."

"How did you two meet?" Virgo asked them.

"Outside the Beatbox Club, two in the morning," Stuart began.

"Street corner," Sarah finished. "I'd lost my purse, didn't have money for a taxi."

"I took her home."

"Wrote his number on the back of my hand."

"Never got rid of her since," Stuart beamed proudly. "My dad said..." His dreamy smile suddenly faded when he remembered that his dad was inside one of the Reaper's stomach, being digested. Sarah stared at Stuart sadly and gripped his arm for comfort.

"I don't know what this is all about, and I know we're not important," Sarah spoke honestly after a few moments of silence in respect for her soon-to-be-husband's dad and for the other people who died outside.

"How're you not important?" Virgo frowned in confusion. "You've created a new little miracle that will love and need you for the rest of their life, and vice versa. I've met a lot of people in all sorts of different places, but not once have I ever met someone like you. Taxis, street corners, some ridiculous time in the morning; that's the life to live, and I've never had one like that." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "In the name of the Doctor, I promise I will at least try to save you. Don't worry."

A/N: I am _so_ sorry I haven't updated in awhile and that's because one of my eyes has been really itching lately and a few days ago it looked red, so that kind of distracted me for some time. Also, an old friend recently contacted me and seeing as how I was a bit friendless before, well just imagine how happy I was. I legitimately teared up when I saw the email. One last thing: I hadn't felt in-the-zone when I decided to type up some more stuff on here. You'd call it writer's block, but I already have the whole of seasons 1-3 and a bit of 4 all planned out, so maybe not entirely. Lack of motivation? Don't know. Anyway, I'm back and I promise to update as soon as possible from now on.

Sorry this is a bit of a late night update, but I don't want to wait until Saturday morning because it's already been some time, so here you go :)

Also, thank you Doctor Who for doing a shoutout to Beethoven! I absolutely _love_ his symphonies, especially number 5 in C minor!


	25. Father's Day: A Tyler Down

Father's Day: A Tyler Down

"I'm a dad," Pete suddenly chuckled while sitting on one of the benches next to Rose, the almost fully-grown one. "I mean, I'm already a dad, but Rose grows up and she's you. That's wonderful! I mean, I suppose I thought that you'd be a bit useless, what with my useless genes and all, but... Well, I mean... _how did you get here_?"

Rose pursued her lips, all tears finally gone but still trying to get comfortable talking to him. The answer should be a bit obvious to Pete, at least it would be the answer that everyone would jump to first... oh, why not?

"Do you really want to know?" she cautioned him with a smile slowly forming on her face.

"Yeah," Pete nodded eagerly.

"A time machine," Rose informed him and watched his reaction closely. There really was no reason for Pete to think that she was crazy now, after all he just discovered that there are creatures called Reapers that feed on wounds in time and his daughter saved his life. _He_ would be the crazy one not to believe in anything she said.

"A time machine," Pete laughed again and hung his head, but not denying her words.

"Cross my heart," Rose laughed as well and did the cross over the heart symbol on her chest.

"What, do you all have time machines where you come from?"

"No, just Virgo and... the Doctor," Rose started off the sentence happily but then her smile fell when she said the Time Lord's name. She had completely forgotten about his supposed 'death' thanks to the whole Reaper mess and Pete telling her he knew who she was. What kind of friend was she if she could easily forget about him?

A silence grew between the two of them, more awkward for Pete because this was the part where he was supposed to comfort her loss.

"... Sorry," he eventually said and didn't meet her line of gaze. "You... okay?"

"I'm fine," Rose nodded then turned her head behind her to see Virgo walking up and down the aisle mumbling something repeatedly with narrowed eyes. "It's her who could use the 'sorry.' She's the one that loves him." She refused to say 'love' in past tense.

"Right," was the only thing that Pete could say before changing the subject. "So, did you know these things were coming?"

Slightly thankful for this, Rose said, "No."

"God, I don't know. My head's spinning. What's the future like?"

"It's not so different," Rose shrugged absently. It really wasn't. The only things that changed were the music styles, phones, cars, and people. The way of life was almost exactly the same.

"What am I like?" Pete asked her, unintentionally - once again - going to her sore spot. "Have I gone bald? Don't tell me I've gone bald." He laughed and it soon died down when Rose didn't speak. "So... if this mate of yours isn't your sister and I have to say, I'm glad, because I don't think I could handle three Jackie's all at once. Same thing goes for the Doctor, because being your dad and all, I think he was a bit old for you. Have you got a bloke?"

"No," Rose said sadly, still hurt by Mickey's rejections from when the world was being invaded by the Slitheen. That was only a typical day, of course. "I did have-"

"Mickey!" Jackie's shout for him finished Rose's sentence.

The said little boy had ran away from Rose's horrid mother and hugged Rose's waist for reasons unknown. The blonde stiffened at first but eventually let out a laugh or two from shock and patted Mickey's back.

The action went noticed by Pete, "Do you know him?"

"I just didn't recognise him in a suit," Rose said. "You have to let go of me, sweetheart. I'm always saying that."

"He just grabs hold of what's passing and holds on for dear life," Jackie walked over to them and took hold of Mickey's hand. Her sentence reminded Rose of her very first adventure with the Time Lords under the London Eye. He had clung to her like she was about to fade away from him. "God help his poor girlfriend if he ever gets one."

"Me and Rose were just talking," Pete gestured to himself and his daughter.

"Oh, yeah?" Jackie scoffed. "Talking? While the world comes to an end, what do you do? Cling to the youngest blonde." She shot Rose a nasty glare before taking Mickey away from them. "Come on, Mick."

Pete sighed in frustration and was about to get up and storm over to Jackie for talking to their daughter like that, but Rose stopped him.

"You can't tell her."

"Why?" Pete asked exasperatedly.

"I mean, I don't want you to tell her," she corrected her previous words.

"What, do you don't want people to know?"

"Where I come from, Jackie doesn't know how to work the timer on the video recorder."

"I showed her that last week," Pete said in confusion, but his daughter's pointed look said it all. "Point taken."

.l.l.l.

Virgo was sitting on table near the choir stalls in puzzlement, staring at Baby Rose in her carrycot like she was a complete mystery to her. She had been here for about five minutes trying to come up with something to get her to go to sleep, but nothing was popping up. She didn't have any children's books and she certainly wasn't about to try and cradle her until she went to sleep because Jackie would have her head if she did.

"Go to sleep," Virgo commanded Baby Rose while she stared at her with wide, curious eyes. "Babies do that all the time. Uh..." She snapped her fingers. "I command thee to sleep! Do it! Abra-cadabra, you're asleep!" Baby Rose continued to stare at her, and the Time Lady sighed and rested her head on her hand. "I need you, Doctor. It should be you doing this."

The Present Rose cautiously walked up to her, and Virgo didn't even glance up at her.

"I'd better be careful," she awkwardly said. "I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken." She tried to glance at her baby self, an opportunity that didn't come around too much for anyone.

Virgo slapped Rose's hands away from the carrycot with a harsh glare, "No. Why are you doing that? You're the same person. You touch her, that causes a paradox and it'll let the Reapers inside. Any disturbance in time will get them closer and closer to breaking those doors down."

Rose rubbed her hand and sighed sadly, "Can't do anything right, can I?"

"When it comes to anything about your family, yes," Virgo agreed and crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the wall. "Leave the baby alone at all costs."

"I'm not stupid!"

"Clearly!" Virgo said sarcastically. "Let's look at the evidence, shall we? You tell us a story about your dad and want to see him in the flesh and blood. Fine, so we take you to your parents' wedding. But, no! That wasn't enough, was it? We just _had_ to take you to the day he died so you could be with him in his last moments! Justified, then you ask us to try again. Already that affects the timelines, but you know why we let you try again? We trusted that you would be able to do this and wait until our past selves were out of sight for you to run to him, but you took that trust and flushed it down the toilet. You saved him, changing your past and Jackie's future. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Reapers decided to show up and _take the Doctor away_!"

By the time the Time Lady was done shouting, both blondes had tears in their eyes and Virgo was panting. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, speaking with a more broken voice.

"If you understand the situation at all, then please say one thing," Virgo wiped away a stray tear or two before they could finish their journey of trailing down her cheek. "Just tell me you're sorry."

"I am," Rose apologized as honestly as she possible could, to have this guilt lifted off her chest. "I'm sorry. I'm _so_ sorry!"

The two of them found themselves being hugged by the other, unsure who it was that started the hug. They cried on each other's shoulders, mourning their deceased friend and ignoring odd stares from wedding guests that had overheard the argument. Virgo had been shouting quite loudly, so it wasn't too difficult to eavesdrop even if none of them had any idea what the Time Lady was trying to say.

Virgo suddenly hissed in pain and pulled out of the hug to fetch her TARDIS key from around her neck. When she held the key in her bare hand, she quickly dropped it to the ground since it was so hot. The key laid on the ground, glowing brightly with little hums here and there, as if the TARDIS itself was speaking through it.

"What's wrong with it?" Rose questioned and bent down, about to pick it up.

Virgo stopped her by slapping her hands away, "No, don't touch it. It's hot." She pulled off her panda sweater (unknowingly causing a few men to blush and look away, them expecting something... different than a tank top) and used it to pick up the TARDIS key so she wouldn't burn her fingers off. "It's telling me it's connected to the TARDIS, but..."

"But?" Rose asked her with raised eyebrows. "But, what?"

"Only the Doctor is connected to the TARDIS," Virgo furrowed her eyebrows, a puzzled expression on her face. "He _is_ the designated pilot, after all... Why would-"

"Never mind that," Rose waved her off. "What do you mean it's connected to the TARDIS? What's wrong with the TARDIS?"

"It would have lost its interior and became an actual police box. It's a time machine, and the Reapers are making the wound in time bigger... put two and two together."

She then ran away from Rose, walked up the stairs while glaring at each step, and stood at the pulpit to make an announcement to everyone in the church.

"Attention!" she shouted and brought some people's attention over to her that weren't staring at her already. "Everyone sit down, I've got some news that'll brighten up your day."

Many smiled broadly and took their seats, but a small group near where Virgo was standing was still talking quietly, and this went noticed by the Time Lady.

"You lot, shut up," she glared daggers at them and they immediately ceased their talking. "Sit down and pay attention." After the group disbanded and sulked to their seats, Virgo returned to her audience. "The inside of the Doctor's... _my_ , apparently, spaceship was thrown out of the wound, but we can use this-" She held up the TARDIS key so that everyone could see "-to bring it back. And once... _my_... ship's back, then I'll be able to get rid of the Reapers and you can all go back to your normal lives. A bit of a problem, though, I need a battery so that I can get some more power into it. Please tell me someone here has a battery."

The people in the seats shared unsure glances with each other in silence until Stuart remembered his dad's phone from before. He picked it up and raised it above his head so that Virgo could see, "This one big enough?"

The Time Lady squinted her eyes to try and examine it, then nodded and jogged down the stairs, "That's good enough."

"Good old dad," Stuart laughed sadly and handed the phone over to her. "There you go."

"Thank you," Virgo took it and pulled out her sonic screwdriver to do a bit of jiggery-pokery upon the telephone to get the battery out.

Meanwhile Pete and Rose were talking quietly with each other, Pete using this opportunity of everyone chatting excitedly amongst themselves to try and get to know more about the future Rose.

"You, er, you never said why you came here in the first place," he pointed out to her, but Rose really wasn't paying any attention to him. She was still quite upset from Virgo's words and the Doctor's death. "If I had a time machine, I wouldn't have thought 1987 was anything special. Not round here, anyway."

"We just... ended up here," Rose shrugged absently.

"Lucky for me, eh?" Pete smiled softly. "If you hadn't been there to save me-"

"That was just a coincidence," Rose quickly spoke and cut him off, really not wanting him to say, 'I would be dead by now.' The Doctor and most of the world's population of humans were gone now, and she really didn't need to hear her own father say that he would die. "That was just... _really_ good luck. It's amazing."

Pete stared at her oddly before changing the subject, "So, in the future, are me and her indoors still together?"

"Yeah."

"Are you still living with us?"

"Yep."

"Am I... a good dad?"

Rose stiffened and slowly brought her eyes to meet with Pete's. How was she supposed to answer that question? She couldn't ever bring herself to say that he wasn't there at all because he was supposed to die about an hour ago, and she didn't want to anyway. The only thing she could do right now was to tell him what she would have wanted from him should he have actually lived with her for more than a year.

"You...," she began hesitantly, and already Pete was frowning at this, "you told me a bedtime story every night when I was small. You were always there. You never missed one. And er... you took us for picnics in the country every Saturday. You never let us down. You were there for us all the time. Someone I could really rely on."

Pete shook his head with a sad smile, "That's not me."

Rose's small grin faltered and she turned to look away from him, pursuing her lips to stop herself from crying again. From the look on Pete's face after she finished her lie, she could guess that he was starting to get that something happened. Maybe his first conclusion wasn't death, but it could be that he and Jackie had divorced and Rose had lived with her for a very long time and hardly visited him. That was small hope, though.

She was thankful when she saw Pete pay close attention to something else and when she finally followed his gaze, she discovered that a faint outline of the TARDIS was materializing around Virgo's TARDIS key that looked like it was levitating.

"No one touch that key!" Virgo shouted at everyone with a stern look. "I repeat, do not touch the key. If you touch it, then you'll have ruined our chances of getting out of here. It probably looks odd, but I don't care. Just leave it be. Actually, try not to even look at it if it helps. Just... _don't touch it_."

The Time Lady blew a piece of hair off her face then slumped down on the bench next to Rose and crossed her arms, staring intently at the TARDIS outline.

"When time gets sorted out-" Rose began, but Virgo already provided her with an answer.

"No one will remember what happened up until the moment the first Reaper appeared. If you're worried about the 'thing' you changed, it'll still be the same."

Rose was about to ask if the Doctor would be restored, but Pete spoke before she could say a word. Even when Pete was talking, she clamped her mouth shut and stared at the ground, Virgo's solemn expression already revealing what her answer would be. No or unlikely was the answer.

"You mean I'll still be alive, though I'm meant to be dead," Pete said harshly. "That's why I haven't done anything with my life, why I didn't mean anything."

"You _do_ mean something," Virgo frowned at his words. "Everyone means something."

"Rubbish," Pete scoffed with the shake of his head. "I'm so useless I couldn't even _die_ properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened."

"This is my fault," Rose countered.

"No, love," Pete smiled sadly at her, not mad that she kept the little detail about his death from him. He was sure she knew more about this time travelling business than he ever could. "I'm your dad; it's my job for it to be my fault."

Unfortunately for him, Jackie was standing right behind him with Baby Rose's carrycot, " _Her_ dad? How are you her dad? How old were you, twelve?" She grimaced, immediately flushing down that image to the back of her mind. "Oh, that's _disgusting_!"

"Jacks, listen," Pete closed his eyes to keep himself from yelling at her and put his hands on Present Rose's shoulders. "This is Rose."

"Rose?" Jackie's voice cracked with heartbroken tears in her eyes. "How sick is that? You give my daughter a second hand name? How many are there? Do you call them _all_ Rose?"

"Oh, for God's sake, look," Pete stood up suddenly. " _It's the same Rose!_ " He quickly picked up Baby Rose and put her in Present Rose's arms with the intention of showing the similarities.

"No, no, no, wait!" Virgo scrambled clumsily to her feet and grabbed Baby Rose and shielded her from Present Rose, but by then it was already too late.

By the time Virgo gave Baby Rose back to a frantic Jackie, a single Reaper already magically appeared in a golden light and flew around the Church while screeching to scare its victims. All the innocent wedding guests screamed and ran around the room.

"Everyone, stay behind me!" Virgo stood up on the bench and shouted at the top of her lungs so that she could be heard over the Reaper's nagging. "I'm the next oldest thing, no time to explain why. Just do it!" She already hated the idea before it came out of her lips, but what else was there to do? Either let everyone run around like animals while the Reapers plucked them from life one by one, or she could give them the impression that she knew what she was doing and they could live off of false hope. False hope was better than no hope at all.

"Virgo!" Rose screamed at her in horror, and that was the last thing the Time Lady heard.

The Reaper screeched once before diving down and gobbling her up, killing two birds with one stone. It screeched once again and flew over to the TARDIS. When the two of them touched, they instantly disappeared in a flash and Virgo's key dropped to the ground, not glowing anymore.

Rose breathed heavily as she stared at the TARDIS key, eventually slowly walking/running over to it and picked it up with shaky hands. Its texture startled her greatly.

"It's cold," she managed to say, unaware of Pete standing behind her and looking at her sympathetically. "The key's cold. Oh, my God, she's dead." Pete placed a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him away. "This is all my fault. The three of you. All of you. The whole world..."

"This is it," Bev declared mournfully. "There's nothing we can do. It's the end."

.l.l.l.

Pete stood by the window and watched with tired eyes at the beige car appearing around the corner then disappearing alongside the church in a golden light on loop. He rested his head against the glass and gazed down at the floor for a few moments before sighing and leaving the window alone.

Grabbing his coat, he walked over to Rose who was sitting on the bench closest to the double doors. She was staring at the ground in resignation, so done with losing both of her best friends on the same day. He didn't want to do this, he _really_ didn't, but it was the only way now that the TARDIS was gone.

"Virgo really cared about you," he said as he rolled up his sleeves. Rose slowly looked up at him and he noticed the dried-out tear stains on her cheeks. "She didn't want you to go through it again, not if there was another way. Now there isn't."

"What are you talking about?" she questioned him in confusion.

"The car that should have killed me, love," Pete pulled his coat on and buttoned it up. "It's here." He gestured to the doors. "Virgo worked it out way back, but she, er, she tried to protect me. Still, she's not in charge anymore. I am."

"But... you can't," Rose pursued her lips when she felt another sob travel up her throat. He was _not_ going to do this. She went through all this trouble, lost both of her best friends just to save his butt from that stupid beige car. If he was going to attempt to kill himself, she was going to make a fight. _Not today_.

"Who am I, love?" Pete asked her with a sad smile.

"My daddy," Rose sobbed into her hand as her mother walked over to the two of them with a curious frown.

"Jackie, look at her," Pete gestured to her. "She's ours."

Jackie swallowed hard and stared into Rose's teary eyes, then the realization finally dawned upon her, "Oh, of course." She pulled her future daughter into a well-needed hug and allowed her to cry on her shoulder.

"I'm meant to be dead, Jackie," Pete joked with a straight face, trying to lighten up the mood that was impossible to lighten up. "You're going to get rid of me at last."

Jackie winced and shook her head, "Don't say that."

"For once in your life, trust me," Pete gave her a pointed look. "It's got to be done. You've got to survive because you've got to bring up our daughter." He kissed Jackie on the lips for the final time before she left him to go cry with her friends, then his attention turned to a crying Rose. "I never read you those bedtime stories. I never took you on those picnics. I was never there for you."

"You would have been!" Rose sobbed.

"But I can do this for you," he cupped her cheeks. "I can be a proper dad to you now."

"But it's not fair!"

"I've had all these extra hours. No one else in the world has ever had that. And on top of that, I got to see you, and you're beautiful. How lucky am I, eh? So, come on, do as your dad says." Rose swallowed away her sobs, or at least tried to, and picked up the vase that was sitting on the bench and handed it to her dad. "You going to be there for me, love? Thanks for saving me." He kissed her on the forehead before dashing out of the church.

He ran and ran to the road, ignoring the screeches from the Reapers above him and looked for the blasted beige car. When he spotted its golden light, he ran toward it and stood in front of it with open arms, closing his eyes as the car's engines grew louder and louder.

"Goodbye, love," he spoke his final words before the beige car struck him. The vase dropped and shattered on the ground just like it was originally supposed to and the all of the Reapers disappeared for good in the golden light.

Rose stood in the church entranceway and stared at her father's barely alive body, not even turning around when someone whispered into her ear.

"Go to him," it was the Doctor's voice. He must've been restored as well as everyone else who were killed by the Reapers. "Quick."

This time, Rose followed the Doctor's instruction and sprinted to her dying father. She kneeled beside him and put his head onto her lap, staring into each other's eyes. The driver had gotten out of the car and stood on the grass, completely shocked by what had happened and not at all affected by the loop.

.l.l.l.

" _The driver was just a kid," Jackie told six-year old Rose in her bedroom, still having the photo album open to Pete's smiling face. "He stopped, he waited for the police. It wasn't his fault. For some reason, Pete just ran out. People say there was this girl, and she sat with Pete while he was dying. She held his hand. Then she was gone. Never found out who she was..."_

.l.l.l.

Pete's eyes lolled to the back of his head and Rose kissed his forehead in farewell. She gently placed his head on the road, stood up, and looked for the Doctor... but he was nowhere to be seen. Did she imagine his voice?

She didn't because she finally found not only the Doctor but Virgo as well. They were back over at the church and were sharing a hug, both of them crying on their shoulders in relief that the other one was alive. Rose managed to form a small smile before deciding that she was going to be part of this reunion. She needed a good cry, too.

" _Peter Alan Tyler, my dad, the most wonderful man in the world. Died the 7th of November 1987."_

A/N: I know, right? I finally updated. Shocker. All I can really say is that I apologize for the long wait... if anyone was even waiting for this to update, lol. I'm far from done with this story, especially since we get Jack in the next chapter *squeal* and the Bad Wolf... actually pretty soon. Huh.

And can I just say I am pretty exhausted. I spent 3 hours working on a stupid French project about Madame de Pompadour. We were able to choose the topic that we wanted to do, and I chose her because she's the first thing that pops into my mind when someone says "France." She actually had a daughter and we didn't see her in _The Girl in the Fireplace_ , and I would actually like to see that episode revised with "Fanfan" in it... I think I know what to do about that episode when I get there *wink wink*

Right, anyway, thank you all for your reviews, favorites, and follows! Seriously, it's so heartwarming to see that people at least like it and no hate just yet. Really appreciate it :D


	26. A Letter and Running

A Letter and Running

Rose was about halfway over to the Time Lords when she suddenly stopped in her tracks, frozen at what was happening before her. Virgo had broken out of the hug and started to whack the Doctor with her fists, not hard enough to punch him but hard enough where it would hurt a bit.

"Ow!" the Doctor jumped away from her and got into a defensive position. He was genuinely confused as to why she was hurting him. "What was that for?"

The Time Lady stopped pouncing on him and stared at him in disbelief. She raised an eyebrow that said, 'Seriously?'

"'What was that for?'" she quoted him with a disturbingly calm face. "' _What was that for_?' You got yourself killed! You sacrificed yourself for me when you didn't have to! I was barely able to hold it in there and I had to save the world without you! And the silence..." She placed her hands on her head with tears in her eyes from remembering how awful it was. "It was _silent_. You put me through all that, and you ask me what my problem is?"

"I... I didn't want you to get hurt," the Doctor could only tell her that. He really hadn't thought about it like that. When he was standing on the street tugging her along, when he saw that Reaper dive down... something flared inside of him. He didn't even think about it. All he could see was her body lying on the ground with exploding fires all around them, and that was something he refused to have. In all four months of her having onboard the TARDIS he had always felt that way, whether consciously or subconsciously. He just... dove right in.

"And I don't want _you_ to get hurt!" Virgo argued. "For God's sake, it's already bad enough that I'm-" She widened her eyes and clamped her mouth shut with her hand. Oh, that was far too close. She was about to tell him that she was pregnant. Now was an extremely bad time for that, _extremely_ bad.

Unfortunately for her, the Doctor caught on, "You're what?" He waited for her to elaborate but her face flushed and she turned around around with her hand still on her mouth, not trusting herself to talk.

Virgo closed her eyes and could only hope that the Doctor would drop it and her, him, and Rose could all just go back to the TARDIS for some cookies by the fireplace. She could use a little snack right now and adding the fireplace to that sounded even more relaxing.

"She's pregnant," Rose's voice came out from behind them.

The Doctor turned around with an offended look, "Of course she's not. Why're you over here, anyway? What part of 'give me the TARDIS key' didn't you understand?"

"Yeah, Rose, of course I'm not," Virgo agreed with the Doctor with clenched teeth. She was shaking her head 'no' vigorously and using the hand gesture for cutting someone's head off.

The human sighed. She tried being patient, she tried to respect the Time Lady's request for her to keep quiet about it, but she almost died today and Rose would've never been able to forgive herself for that as well as the Doctor's 'death.' It's been a week since her confrontation with her and she saw that Virgo made no move to try and tell the Doctor. Not even a tiny, tiny hint. If the adventures continued the way they were, the baby was gonna end up dead and Virgo would never be able to move on from that.

It was time. Would this ruin Rose's and Virgo's friendship? Most likely. Are the Time Lords gonna fight about this? Of course!

"She told you before, too," Rose continued to talk and looked the Doctor directly in the eye so he knew she was telling the truth. "For some reason you can hardly remember it, but she did tell you at some point in the past. She's been pregnant this entire time - probably even before I joined you - and you've been too oblivious to notice! Why do you think she wears a sweater now? To hide it from you. Why did she panic in Cardiff and the Cabinet Room? Because she didn't want to hurt the baby!"

The Doctor stared at his companion with a dumbfounded expression. Well, that certainly explained... quite a few things, actually. He always did wonder why Virgo had adopted the panda sweater, but had simply thought she wanted a change in style. He never even considered...

He turned back to face Virgo and opened his mouth to ask her if this was true... but she was gone. He searched all around their surroundings to try to find at least the faintest trace of a runaway Time Lady, but there was none to be found.

His first guess was that she was in the TARDIS, but she probably knew that was the first place he'd think to look for her. He'd have to search around the area before checking the old girl out. She couldn't have gone far.

"All right, Rose, go back to the TARDIS," the Doctor told her firmly. "I'm gonna look for her. Don't do anything that'll disrupt the timelines again. This year is fragile." He started to walk away, but Rose's voice stopped him.

"I don't have a key," she said with a smirk.

The Doctor ran back over to Rose, fished out her TARDIS key, put it in her hand, and resumed his running down the street.

.l.l.l.

The sun was setting in the horizon on the sad day, and the Doctor could not find a trace of Virgo. To say he was worried was an understatement. He had asked random people if they had seen a girl in a panda sweater, had hacked into security cameras to try and catch a glimpse of her, and it all ended in the same result: nothing, zip, nadda.

He eventually collapsed onto a bench and put his face in his hands. The TARDIS was really the only place left that he could search through, but at this point he believed that maybe Virgo needed some space. And he would grant her that space, but his curiosity was absolutely _killing_ him; he was also pretty upset that Virgo would hide this information from him. They were friends, weren't they? Friends told each other everything, and what did Rose mean by when she said he couldn't remember Virgo telling him?

"Anything the matter, Doc?" said a voice from right next to the Doctor.

Slowly and in confusion, the Doctor lifted his head away from his hands and turned to his right to find a man. His eyes were light blue, brown hair, a smug look on his rectangle-shaped face, and World War II-like clothes. His arms were crossed and he was casually lounging on the bench's handle, which didn't look at all that comfortable.

"How'd you know my name?" the Doctor narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.

The mystery man shrugged and his smile only grew, "I get around a bit. I'm assuming that Rose told you that Virgo's pregnant, and now you've given up on the search to find her."

"How do you know that?" the Doctor stood up and clenched his fists. Why did everyone know about Virgo's little secret except for him?!

"I'm from your future," the man informed him calmly. "Not that far away, from the looks of it. I was told to come here on November 7, 1987 at 6:15 p.m by someone I'm sure you know very, _very_ well." He wagged his eyebrows up and down suggestively and the Doctor grimaced, both of them thinking different things.

"If you're from my future, then why are you here?" the Doctor questioned him, not trusting him any more than before. At least now he knew what questions not to ask.

"Simple," the man stood up as well and took out something from his jacket pocket. "I was told to give this to you. I'm a delivery boy now, so to speak." The item in his jacket was a folded up, torn notebook paper and he handed to the Doctor.

The Doctor unfolded the paper and immediately recognized it as a letter from Virgo thanks to her messy handwriting.

 _Doctor,_

 _This isn't actually an apology letter. No, the me that's with you will take care of that as soon as you find her. I'm writing to you now because I want you to know something. The me that is with you now is scared like you would never believe. She's going through so much and she needs someone to stand by her side, and I hope that someone can be you. I've allowed you to have some time to let everything sink in and process, so maybe that helps. I would've sent this letter to you after you've talked to your Virgo, but you leave 1987 immediately afterwards. And I know you don't trust the man who's in front of you now, but believe me when I say that you will like him when you meet him properly. Saved my life, in fact. Now, you'll find me in my bedroom aboard the TARDIS. The door will be locked, so be sure to knock. In fact, you should be knocking in the first place. I can't tell you how much it annoys me when someone enters my room without knocking. Absolutely horrid._

 _Please think this over, and I hope that you won't hate me forever._

 _See you in the future,_

 _~ Virgo_

 _P.S: The man in front of you is already gone, so don't bother to try to find him again._

The Doctor looked up from the note to find that the future Virgo was right; the man was indeed gone. He sighed and glanced back at the letter and read it through once more, then one more time. He slowly put the letter in his leather jacket and stared at the ground, deep in thought.

.l.l.l.

He walked through the halls of the TARDIS slowly, glancing up at the walls every now and then to see if he was passing Virgo's bedroom door. He'd been walking for about ten minutes now and the TARDIS had put him through a corridor maze, the old girl clearly thinking that Virgo needed a bit of time before she could explain to the Doctor about everything.

But at last, the dark, wooden door with a golden plaque with her name on it in their people's language came into sight. The Doctor walked up to it and knocked on the door softly, remembering that the future Virgo had said very specifically that he needed to knock. He could faintly hear a gasp, but that was about it. He didn't hear a click to signal that the door was unlocked and the handle didn't start turning. He didn't push it, so he simply stared at the handle and... waited.

What seemed like hours but really seconds later, he heard a soft click and the door handle slowly opened. The Doctor stood up straighter and watched the door creak open and it eventually revealed half of Virgo's face. He opened his mouth to say something, but she beat him to it.

"I'm sorry!" she apologized quickly in a panic, opening up the door all the way. Her braids had been undone, so her hair was now a complete mess. She held her hands out as if to protect herself from him coming inside. "Believe me, I am so sorry. I wanted to tell you myself, and I was gonna do it... eventually... I didn't exactly tell Rose; she eavesdropped on me talking with Jackie about it, so it wasn't just you that I didn't tell properly. I originally told you on Gallifrey and please don't ask why you can't remember it because I can hardly remember it, too."

The Doctor studied her closely to see if she was genuinely sorry. She was panting, her eyes were wide, and her outstretched arms were shaking a bit; that was about half of what he wanted to hear. Now he wanted to hear the full story, the _full_ story. No more lies, no more avoiding details, and _no more_ secrets.

"Tell me everything," the Doctor made his way in and sat at Virgo's dark, wooden desk and relaxed himself in the black chair. He grabbed the finished Rubix cube from Jackie's flat and tossed it up and down.

Virgo sighed and shut the door, making sure to lock it because she didn't need Rose coming in here now. She made her way to her bed that was in front of the desk and crashed onto it, resting her head on her hands that was on the pillow. She stared at the ceiling and begun her story, the same story she told Rose at Satellite Five but with a lot more details since the Doctor actually knew what she was talking about half the time.

A/N: I know, right? We get Jack one chapter early! Woo! Even I was fangirling a bit when I read through this whole chapter, and I was the one who wrote it! I'm really satisfied at how this turned out, actually. I am a bit nervous since this is almost completely original (I still don't own Doctor Who *sigh*) so please be gentle if you're going to say what's bad about it. I haven't felt this nervous since the first chapter of _Aliens in London_ or _Long Game_ , in fact I'm actually shaking a bit as I'm typing this A/N. I'm so pathetic :P

Also, no idea how to title this chapter without spoiling what is was about. I'm probably gonna come back to this and change the title at some point, but for now it's gonna stay like this. I know, I don't like it very much either.

Thank you for following and favoriting this story, seriously. It honestly makes my day and I wish I could prove that to you on here, but I don't see how I can. Bummer. All I can pretty much say is is that it's very much appreciated :D


	27. The Empty Child: Stupid Stairs

The Empty Child: Stupid Stairs

The TARDIS rocked back and forth as it flew through the time vortex, chasing a small object as if her life depended on it. It wasn't much better inside since the Doctor and Rose were hanging on for dear life on the console while the Doctor was attempting to fly the box to keep up with whatever they were chasing. If that sounded hard, it was even harder when the Doctor was only half-paying attention to what he was doing.

It was only about a day ago since Rose blurted out that Virgo was pregnant and Virgo's explanation for how it all began, and it had really shocked him. He was honestly horrified to know that there was going to be another Time Lord or Lady aboard the TARDIS pretty soon and Virgo was going to have to tell him/her that their father was dead. More importantly, the fate of their _entire race_! And the Doctor himself had been a dad and granddad... and now that he was neither, and the universe was going to make him pay by making him live with a child that wasn't his.

After Virgo told him about what might as well be the story of her life, she poured out all of her worries about what he'd do with her baby. He could only assure her that he would never attempt to separate the two of them, and that _was_ true, but now he was thinking about if he should let Virgo raise her baby on a peaceful planet so that they wouldn't get hurt during the adventures. It was probably the right thing to do, but the problem was was that they were the last of their species; he didn't want to be away from them for too long.

On top of that... was someone waving their hand in front of his eyes?

"Stop that!" he pushed away the hand, now recognizing it as Rose's. "What was I saying?"

"You were saying something about an emergency," Rose informed him and gestured to the rocking TARDIS to make the obvious even more obvious. "So what's the emergency?"

Realization flowed through the Doctor's face and he jumped back to work, remembering why they were in a shaky TARDIS in the first place, "It's mauve." He brought the monitor back over to him so he could see how much closer they had gotten during the duration in which he was zoned out for.

"Mauve?" Rose furrowed her eyebrows at the specific color.

"The universally recognised colour for danger," he quickly explained to her after pressing some more buttons and pulling a lever here and there.

"What happened to red?"

"That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing. It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."

"And that's safe, is it?" Rose asked, wincing as the TARDIS shook violently for a few seconds before it returned to the normal turbulence.

"Totally," the Doctor reassured with a tense smile. The console suddenly exploded into a shower of sparks that caused the Doctor to move back toward the railings, accompanied by a new burn on his hand. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there." He ran back to the console and checked back on the progress. "No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"What exactly is this thing?" Rose questioned him, wanting to know what they were going after before they actually arrived at the pursued item.

"No idea."

"Then why are we chasing it?"

"It's mauve and dangerous and about thirty seconds from the centre of London."

The TARDIS materialized in an alleyway that had some trash scattered around on the dirt, loose papers flying in the wind and toward the fence in the back. Thankfully there were no creepy old men sitting on trashcans reading the newspapers, unlike the Powell Estate.

"Right, let's go," the Doctor dashed toward the doors to get outside and see where they were, but, once again, Rose's voice stopped him.

"What about Virgo?" she called to him. She looked back to the entrance to the infinite corridors to see if the Time Lady was standing there from all the ruckus they had caused in the console room. "Shouldn't we go get her?"

Rose was pretty worried about the state of the friendship between the two Time Lords. When she entered the kitchen this morning to make herself her morning tea and some pancakes with syrup from a distant planet a billion billion light-years away from the Solar System, only the Doctor was in there. It was usually both aliens running around and making a giant mess in the kitchen.

A similar thing happened in the library. When she went in there to get herself a good book to read, she had heard Virgo run out of the room and into the corridors. How Rose knew it was Virgo? Well, the Doctor never wore panda sweaters and would never leave them on the couch where the fireplace could possibly burn the cloth.

Virgo was avoiding the both of them which was understandable, but that didn't mean that Rose liked it. She did feel bad about disobeying the Time Lady's one order, but this needed to be resolved sooner or later.

The Doctor put both hands on either railings and stared at the doors in thought. What he was thinking about, Rose would probably never know. A few seconds later, the Doctor turned on his heel with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Nah," he shook his head. "It'd take too long to find her. Let's go now!" Before Rose could say anything to change his mind, he burst out of the TARDIS. The blonde sighed, but reluctantly followed after him.

When she was outside, she shut the door and surveyed her new surroundings with a grimace, not enjoying the trash feature.

"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" the Doctor asked in annoyance, purposely changing the subject.

Catching on, Rose pretended to think about an answer, "Five days? Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

"Of all the species in all the universe, and it has to come out of a cow," the Doctor added, and the two of them cracked a laugh together. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago; maybe a month."

"A month?" Rose widened her eyes. "We were _right behind it_."

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place," the Doctor reasoned with a shrug. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"

"Yeah," Rose answered sarcastically. "How much is 'a little?'"

"A bit."

"Is that exactly a bit?"

"... Ish."

"What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

The Doctor turned to her with raised eyebrows, "Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to _ask_." He took out the psychic paper and gave it to Rose for her to read.

"'Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids,'" Rose read with a frown, immediately criticizing the name. That name was going to get him nowhere!

"It's psychic paper, it tells you-" the Doctor began the explanation.

"Whatever you want it to tell me," Rose finished and rolled her eyes in annoyance. That was the third time that one of the two Time Lords had explained to her what a measly bit of psychic paper does to mess with your head. "I remember."

The duo walked to the end of the alleyway where there was a door on the brick wall. Since it was locked, and without even bothering to check if it was, the Doctor instinctively pulled out the sonic screwdriver and flashed it at the lock.

"Not very Spock, is it?" Rose commented with narrowed eyes at the Doctor's tech. "Just asking."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her. He had shown her all of the Star Trek movies that would ever be created, and Rose _loved_ it. Spock was her favorite character, so that was why she wouldn't shut up about him for the next several hours; it was getting old and unamusing.

He chose to ignore her comment, "Doors, music, people. What do you think?"

"I think you should do a scan for alien tech," Rose advised and looked behind herself, feeling like something was watching them. When there wasn't anything, she turned back to the Doctor. "Give me some Spock for once. Would it kill you?"

The Doctor finally managed to get the door open, so he put away the screwdriver and opened the door all the way and held it there because it was one of those doors that wouldn't stay open. He was about to set foot in the building until he noticed Rose's Union Flag top.

"Are you sure about that t-shirt?" he raised an eyebrow, silently criticizing everything about it.

Rose looked down at her shirt and played with the ends of it, a quizzical look on her face, "Too early to say... I'm taking it out for a spin."

"Mummy?" a child's voice caused Rose to spin around to try and pinpoint where it was coming from, but there was no one in the alleyway. "Mummy?"

"Come on, if you're coming," the Doctor noticed Rose's pause. "It won't take a minute." He, of course, had heard the child's voice, but he wasn't quite ready to deal with children yet. He already had a kid whose mother was avoiding him.

"Mummy?" the mysterious child spoke once more.

Rose frowned and narrowed her eyes at the wall, deciding if she should seek out the child or follow the Doctor. After a few seconds of pondering, she shrugged and went after the Doctor, trusting some complete strangers to help the kid find his mommy.

After the door closed behind Rose, another door had opened. Virgo stepped out from the TARDIS hesitantly and looked all around the alleyway to make sure that there wasn't a blonde human or a leather-jacket-wearing-Time Lord waiting for her. When she saw there wasn't she smirked and jumped out from the doorway, about to make her daring journey to reach the end of the alleyway... when the child cried out again.

"Mummy?" the kid called out.

Virgo stopped walking and froze in her tracks, her small grin faltering and was soon replaced with a deep frown. She pulled herself out of her trance and looked high and low for the child. Her eyes eventually landed on the roof next to her.

A silhouette of a child in 1940's clothes and a gas mask on his face was standing on the roof, staring right at her. He didn't seem to be aware of where he was standing right now, because any child would have immediately tried to crawl away from the edge of a roof.

"Are you okay?" Virgo shouted up to the little boy, panic starting to overcome her about the boy's safety. She looked around to see if there was someway that she could help the kid out, and eventually found something.

.l.l.l.

The Doctor and Rose walked into a nightclub with 1940's style written all over it. There were mostly men sitting at the tables wearing pinstripe suits and hats. They were either watching a woman in a white dress sing on the stage, smoking, or reading some newspapers about the latest Hitler attacks.

The woman in white caught sight of the duo and flirtatiously winked at the Doctor, just like she did to every man who arrived at the nightclub. The Time Lord, him being completely oblivious when it came to things like that, simply smiled and leaned on the wall.

.l.l.l.

Virgo ran as fast as she could up the fire exit staircase, growing more and more tired by the second. Every step was getting harder and harder to climb up, and she was debating whether or not to throw her sweater off the staircase just to make herself colder so that she could increase her speed.

"Don't move!" she called up to the kid frantically. "Whatever you do, _stay where you are_!"

"Mummy?" the kid called once again.

.l.l.l.

The woman finished up her song and the crowd at the tables whistled, clapped, or both at her as she walked down the steps. The Doctor then ran up the stage and took hold of the microphone before someone from the jazz band could take it and spoke into it.

"Excuse me," he politely called out to everyone. "Excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention for just a mo? Be very quick. Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"

Rose shook her head at the Doctor's horrible way of putting it into words, and shortly later everyone in the club laughed at him in an absurd way.

.l.l.l.

Virgo crawled on her hands and knees on a flat roof, only a couple of feet below the child with the gasmask on. She was panting with her legs absolutely sore and on fire, but she didn't stop moving for one minute and wouldn't stop until she saw that the boy was fine.

"Don't... move!" Virgo forced herself to stand and walked up to the wall, searching for some more stairs to take. "I'm coming to help you! Not gonna hurt you, just making sure that you know that."

Just as she was about to step on the staircase, a rope suddenly dangled down in front of her face. Thinking that the child sent it down to her, she grabbed onto it and gave it a tug to make sure it could hold her bodyweight, then started to climb as fast as she could.

.l.l.l.

"Sorry, have I said something funny?" the Doctor questioned the laughing crowd with an offended frown. "It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."

The sound of a siren interrupted whatever the Doctor was going to say next, and the laughs ceased and the crowd made their way to a metal door solemnly. Rose made her way over to the Doctor, confused as to where the crowd was going and didn't want to be separated from her friend.

"Would've landed quite near here," the Doctor continued to talk. "With a very loud..." He caught sight of a poster on the wall that showed a picture of a bomb and the caption read 'Hitler will send no warning!' "... bang."

"Now what?" Rose asked him sadly, mainly upset that they were in the middle of World War II. She looked down at her shirt. "Definitely not this shirt, then."

.l.l.l.

Virgo painstakingly climbed up the rope like it was a human gym class and the coach kept shouting at her to move faster or that she was weak. She preferred running, not stair-climbing or rope-climbing. Who invented stairs? Why was stairs a thing?

"Mummy!" the little boy shouted for probably about the hundredth time now. "Balloon!"

"Yes, I can get you a balloon after I've gotten you down," Virgo spoke with clenched teeth and climbed up some more. It wasn't until the rope started to pull her away from her destination that she understood why the boy said balloon. The Time Lady closed her eyes and slowly lifted her head to see what she was holding onto.

The rope was connected to a blimp. It rose high enough to the point where Virgo could see the majority of World War II London, more British barrage balloons, and German airplanes with bombs ready to drop down.

Virgo clung to the rope in fear, refusing to look down. Well, a lesson could be learnt from this: if you see a suspicious-looking rope, _don't climb up it_ because it'll most likely lead you to a war balloon.

.l.l.l.

After a failed attempt of getting information on the mauve object, the Doctor and Rose left the nightclub the same way they entered. Rose spotted a black kitten sitting on a garbage can and immediately squealed over it.

"Oh, you pretty boy!" she gently picked up the kitten and scratched its ears, beaming when she felt him purr. "Yes, you are. Yes, you are a pretty boy." She caught sight of the Doctor looking amused. "What?"

"You humans squeal over the tiniest of things," the Doctor chuckled. "I'll never understand it."

Rose was about to retort that cats were the best creatures alive until a phone rang from behind them. Startled, the kitten jumped down from Rose's hands and trotted away toward the empty streets.

"Doctor, that's...," Rose pointed to the TARDIS, where the phone sound was coming from.

The duo cautiously approached the TARDIS and the Doctor opened up the tiny door next to the taller doors to reveal a ringing telephone. The phone rumbled for about three seconds until it grew still, then rumbled again.

"I didn't know that phone worked," Rose stared at it like her life turned upside down. "When you called me, I thought you were inside the TARDIS. Not outside."

"I was," the Doctor corrected her. He slowly reached out to take it and find out who was calling him, but was stopped by a woman's voice.

"Don't answer it," the woman warned him. "It's not for you." She was wearing a gray overcoat over some black clothes, and her dark brown hair was split into two braids that disturbingly resembled Virgo's. Her hands were in her pockets, and serves her right to because it was pretty cold out.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and turned to face the woman, 100% suspicious of her, "And how do you know that?"

"'Cos I do," the woman glared at him. Well, that was rude. She was trying to help the Time Lord from listening to a disturbing phone call by not answering the phone, and she gets this kind of response? "And I'm telling you, don't answer it."

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this: how can it be ringing?" the Doctor went back to the phone in the TARDIS that was still ringing. "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not-"

"Doctor, she's gone," Rose informed him and pointed to where the mysterious woman was last seen. "Should we answer it anyway?"

The Doctor decided to disobey the woman's wishes and grabbed the phone and brought it to his ear, "Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"

" _Mummy?_ " the same child's voice from before spoke through the phone, immediately causing the Doctor to frown. " _Mummy?_ "

"Who is this?" the Doctor interrogated the user. "Who's speaking?" Rose leaned toward the Doctor's ear so that she could hear what the other person was saying.

" _Are you my mummy?_ "

"Who is this?"

" _Mummy?_ "

"How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

" _Mummy?_ " was the child's last word (big surprise there) before he hung up and left the dialling tone for the Doctor to listen to.

"Doctor, I heard that voice before," Rose informed him as he put the phone back into the tiny box. "Before we went in there, I heard the kid's voice. He kept on saying 'Mummy' or whatever. What does that mean?"

"I don't know," the Doctor shrugged and started to walk out of the alleyway. "Let's go find that woman. She seems to know what's going on."

.l.l.l.

The trail that the Doctor picked up on for the mystery woman took him to an ordinary house next to some other ordinary houses. He and Rose hid behind the fence and watched as a mother was trying to get her family into the shelter located in the backyard. They seemed relatively calm except for being angry at the Germans for disrupting their dinner and quality time together. Quite rude, really.

"The planes are coming," the lady grumbled to her kids and ushered them into the shelter. "Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it! Come on, hurry up, get in there. Come on." She looked back at the house. "Arthur! Arthur, will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?"

Arthur stormed outside with his face completely red in annoyance and anger, "Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans." He looked up at the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't you eat?!"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged amused glances with each other.

"I can hear the planes!" his wife tried again to get her husband into the shelter.

"Don't you eat?!"

"Oh, keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid! Get in. Look, there's a war on."

"I know there's a war on," Arthur grumbled and entered the shelter, shrugging away his wife's hands to push him inside like she did to the kids. "Don't push me." The wife finally got into the shelter herself and closed the door tightly.

Rose was about to ask the Doctor why they were here anyway, when a certain woman with a pair of braids emerged from the shrubs next to the shelter. It was the woman from before, and she walked out from her hiding spot to make sure that everyone who lived in the house was in the shelter before smiling and entering the house.

.l.l.l.

On a balcony in an office, a man who shared the same features as the man who gave the Doctor Future Virgo's letter to him was standing there. He still had his World War II coat on, but everything else he was wearing fit the times perfectly. However, the binoculars he was using wasn't very much fitting for the times. He was spying on Virgo, who was still on the blimp dangling by rope.

"Jack?" an officer behind him said urgently. "Are you going down to the shelter? Only I've got to go off on some silly guard duty. Ah, barrage balloon, eh? Must've come loose. Happens now and then. Don't you RAF boys use them for target practice?"

Jack zoomed in on Virgo in a particular area, "Excellent bottom."

The officer, thinking that Jack was talking to him, blushed and looked down at the floor, "I say, old man, there's a time and a place. Look, you should really be off."

Jack took his binoculars away from his face and said to the officer, "Sorry, old man. I've got to go meet a girl, but you've got an excellent bottom, too." He winked, slapped the officer's bottom, then ran out of the office.

.l.l.l.

The mystery woman walked around the house to try and locate where the dining room was, or wherever the Lloyd family sat down for dinner every night. She eventually stumbled into the dining room, and she wasn't disappointed. Turkey, fruits, veggies, ham, everything she could possibly ask for was sitting on that shiny table underneath the chandelier. Now that was what she called a feast!

She smiled at the sight then ran outside to the deserted streets, putting her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly three times. She ran back into the house, leaving the door wide open along the way, and back into the dining room.

She took off her coat, grabbed a pair of knives, and started to carve the turkey. Before she could even get one slice on a glass plate, two boys arrived in the room.

"Many kids out there?" she asked them and finished cutting out the first slice.

"Yes, miss," the taller boy said before he and his friend dived into the all-you-can-eat buffet.

"Ah!" the woman scolded the children like a mother would. "Still carving. Sit and wait. We've got the whole air raid." She gave them a pointed look and the boys reluctantly obeyed with a groan.

"Look at that," the taller boy licked his lips and nodded to one of the food. "Bet it's off the black market."

"That's enough," the woman glared at him.

.l.l.l.

Virgo's arms were shaking from the lack of strength, but she only lasted this long because she was absolutely determined to not fall to her death. She didn't think that even regeneration could save her from the awfully big drop to the ground below. She had also lost her sunhat along the way; that was her second one, and now it was gone!

An explosion very close by startled her enough to the point where she forgot she had to hold onto the rope. Even when she realized it, it was far too late and she was now falling to her death. She did what any other person would do in that situation: scream her head off with tears flying off her face.

Before she could experience what death was like, a blue, transparent beam caught her in the middle of her journey falling down. Virgo looked around frantically as she bounced a little in the beam, unsure what she should do with her hands since there was nothing to hold onto.

"Okay, okay, I've got you," Jack spoke to her through a speaker that was somehow in the beam.

"Oh, joy!" Virgo replied sarcastically. "Pull me in!"

"I'm just programming your descent pattern," Jack informed her with the distant sounds of buttons being pushed. "Keep as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field. Oh, and could you switch off your electronic device?" Virgo stared at the beam with a blank look. "No seriously, it interferes with my instrument."

"It's a sonic device!" Virgo grumbled at him and took out her sonic screwdriver, powering it down completely. "It's used for better purposes than interfering with light fields!"

"Thank you," Jack thanked. "That's much better."

"Lovely, now pull me in! Please!"

"Be with you in a moment," Jack promised her and turned to his computer for results on the scan for her sonic screwdriver.

" _The sonic device indicates non-contemporaneous life form_ ," the computer spoke in a lovely female voice.

"She's not from around here, no," Jack nodded and pulled a lever. "Ready for you! Hold tight!"

"To what?!" the Time Lady asked him, exasperated.

"Fair point," Jack shrugged and pulled another lever.

The beam lit up brightly and Virgo shot through it with a scream, falling and falling until she landed in Jack's arms. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and he was carrying her bridal style, her eyes were shut tightly, and she was shaking from fear. She hadn't been this scared in a long time, not even when she first saw the Dalek in Van Statten's museum or in Cardiff or in the Cabinet Room.

"I've got you," Jack assured her with a smile. "You're fine, you're just fine. The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little."

Virgo eventually opened her eyes and stared into Jack's. At first they were wide with even more fear, but then it slowly formed into an angry glare, "Put me down now. Put me down now!" She was shouting the last sentence, and since she was so close to Jack's face, he winced and immediately set her on the ground.

"Okay, okay," he said quickly and remained calm to show Virgo that there was no threat in here.

The Time Lady stepped away from him and ended up collapsing in a chair that was connected to the ground but could spin around. She pressed her chest against the back of the chair and took out her sonic screwdriver to point at Jack in a threatening manner.

"Two questions: who are you and where am I?" Virgo questioned him at the same time she was trying to calm herself down. A few deep breaths should do the trick and maybe a little corner to cry in would do nicely, as well.

A/N: Alright-y, now Jack is properly in the picture! Huzzah for progress! Wow, only four more episodes to upload before we're done with this story... I'm not sure how I feel about that. Accomplished? Satisfied? Sad? I don't know, but I know I'll be happy once I'm completely done. I am gonna miss the 9th Doctor, though. He should have been in more than one season, but apparently Eccleston disliked where Doctor Who was going. A bit mad at him for that, but that's his opinion and I respect that.

Thank you all for doing the usual: following, favoriting, and (my personal favorite) reviewing. Much, much appreciated :D

Quick shout-out to France about... you know what. :,( Deeply sorry to them and let's hope that everything will be fine in that country soon. Don't let the stupid, ungrateful, evil, heartless, rude, cruel terrorists win by sulking about forever.


	28. The Empty Child: Not Easily Fooled

The Empty Child: Not Easily Fooled

A/N: Pardon me, but I just want to say something before you get confused. When I write "the child" I'm talking about the child with the gas mask AKA Jamie. When I write "the kid" or "kids" I'm talking about the kids who aren't wearing the gas masks. Just wanted to make that clear in case it gets confusing. It didn't sound confusing while I was reading it through, but probably because I wrote the chapter and I know what I'm talking about. Just a little... oh, what do you call this? A tip? Yeah, okay, this is my tip to you guys. Thank you. Continue on, no more interruptions.

.l.l.l.

A little time has passed in the dining room in the Lloyds' house and Nancy was almost done carving the entire turkey and the children had taken up the entire table as well as some extra chairs. The kids were talking amongst themselves while some were talking to Nancy with her lovely braids, eager to know how she found these places or maybe even about her brother. She was always dismissive though and that was partly because she didn't want them to become thugs and thieves when they got older.

"It's got to be the black market," the tall boy, Ernie, insisted as he glanced at the table with hungry eyes. "You couldn't get all this on coupons."

"Ernie, how many times?" the braided lady sighed in annoyance. "We are guests in this house. We will not make comments of that kind. Washing up." The children laughed at Ernie, but he wasn't bothered by it as he was laughing, too.

"Oh, Nancy," he shook his head in amusement. He honestly didn't care about what Nancy said to him about being respectful in a house. The owners weren't here and as long as he got his food, he was a happy camper.

Nancy's eyes eventually landed on a boy that was a foot smaller than Ernie with a hat on and gray clothes that made him look tiny and innocent. She raised an eyebrow that this. The gatherings were getting quite crowded and the last thing she wanted to do was deny a hungry child a buffet of delicious meals; you couldn't get more cruel than that, so that was why there were this many children. She didn't have the heart to say 'no' to them.

"Haven't seen you at one of these before," she told the boy.

"He told me about it," he gestured his head toward Ernie then looked down at the ground, as if he had done something wrong and felt guilty about it.

"Sleeping rough?"

"Yes, miss..."

"All right, then," Nancy accepted, but wasn't too happy about it. She didn't want the boy to get the wrong idea, so she immediately held out the plate full of carved turkey. The children all awed at it and quickly got their plates ready for the turkey. "One slice each, and I want to see _everyone_ chewing properly."

Jim was the first one to grab the plate, so he used a fork to grab the largest piece and placed it on his plate. He said he thanks to Nancy then gave the turkey plate to Ernie, and the process continued from there. The plate went all around the table until it landed in the hands of an older man's, who also decided to say thanks just for the heck of it.

The children finally noticed the Doctor and Rose, so they instantly got up from their chairs and backed away from them. Only Nancy remained calm and gave everyone chastising looks.

"It's all right," she assured them, mainly not wanting them to scream to attract the Lloyd family back in here. "Everybody stay where you are!"

"Good here, innit?" the Doctor commented and took a bite of his turkey. "Who's got the salt?" Rose passed him the salt and his price for it was a piece of his turkey. What? Turkey's good!

"Back in your seats," Nancy ordered the kids with authority in her voice. None of them moved, and that was when she realized what they were scared about. "They shouldn't be here either."

She watched as the children breathed a sigh of relief and climbed back into their chairs; some of them climbed onto the cushions while others were tall enough to actually sit down. They started to munch on their turkey and veggies, completely fine with the Doctor and Rose now.

An awkward silence filled the room and the only noises that could be heard was the distant bombing and food being chewed up in mouths. Rose nudged the Doctor to silently tell him to say something. He was always good at that, talking. It was no secret that the man _loved_ to ramble on and on to show how impressive he was.

"So, you lot, what's the story?" the Doctor questioned innocently if not a bit awkwardly. He was still uncomfortable with the whole Virgo-baby situation, and the kids weren't far off from babies. In fact, since he was so old, the children here were might actually be babies to him.

"What do you mean?" Ernie narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Well, I reckon you're homeless, most of you," Rose shrugged and stole another piece of turkey, smirking when she saw the Doctor scowl at her in the corner of her eye. "Is that right?"

"Why do you want to know that?" Jim, also suspicious of the duo, asked. "Are you coppers?"

"Of course we're not coppers," the Doctor grimaced with the shake of his head. "What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" Most of the kids laughed. "I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even _be_ in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated," the little boy that was sitting next to Ernie, Alf, informed him with a sly, childish smile. "Sent me to a farm."

"Then how come you're sitting here with us right now?" Rose asked him.

Alf's smile deflated, "There was a man there..."

"Yeah, same with Ernie," Jim pointed to Ernie, who had lost his appetite and was staring at his plate in shame. "Two homes ago."

"Shut up," Ernie glared at him. "It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food." The kids all murmured in agreement.

"Yeah," Jim laughed happily and picked up a nice chunk of turkey to put into his mouth. "Nancy _always_ gets the best food for us."

"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" the Doctor nodded in understanding.

She stared at him with narrowed eyes, "What is?"

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big, fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo!" the Doctor further evaluated. "Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you." He had a cheeky smile when he said that last sentence.

"Something wrong with that?"

"Wrong with it? It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical."

Nancy sat up straighter and stared at the Doctor and Rose with critical eyes, "Why'd you two follow me? What do you _want_?"

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call," the Doctor said and gestured with his fork. "You seem to be the one to ask."

"I did you a _favour_ ," Nancy insisted. "I told you not to answer it. That's all I'm telling you." She suddenly stood up and took the Doctor's plate away from him, slapping Rose's hands away when she saw that the blonde was trying to reach for another piece of turkey.

"Why're you taking it away?" Rose whined with a pout. That was some _really_ good turkey. It may be the London Blitz, but even people in this time period knew how to eat.

"You took _two_ slices," Nancy said and the kids all laughed. She placed the plate down on some random place on the table, not caring that the closest kids were all reaching for the turkey. "Anything else before you leave?"

"Yeah, there is, actually," the Doctor took out a notebook from the insides of his jacket along with a pen. "Thanks for asking. Something I've been looking for. Would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would have looked something like this."

When he was done sketching, he turned the notebook around and showed it to Nancy. It was basically a rough sketch of a thin oval with no details whatsoever. Not exactly artsy, now is he? However, Nancy seemed to recognize it because her face softened and she pursued her lips. Before she could say anything about it, there was a voice from outside.

"Mummy?" the child from before called out and his voice sounded quite close. "Are you in there, Mummy?"

The Doctor frowned and faced the window that was behind them, knowing that that window was the only thing separating them between the child in a gasmask. He pushed the curtain out of the way to reveal the child peering into the room. The kids shrieked in surprise.

"Mummy?" the child spoke before slowly moving away from the window and walking somewhere else.

Nancy, in a panic, turned to the kids, "Who was the last one in?"

"Them," Ernie pointed to the Doctor and Rose.

"No, they came round the back," Nancy shook her head. "Who came in the front?"

Realizing that was him, Alf closed his eyes in despair, "Me..."

"Did you close the door?"

"Er-"

" _Did you close the door?_ "

"Mummy?" the child's voice called from further away, but Nancy knew exactly where he was going. "Mummy? Mummy?"

Not trusting that the door was locked tightly, Nany bolted out of the dining room and into the hallway where the front door was. Just as she arrived to it, the child had opened up the door a few inches before she pushed it shut again. She quickly locked it with the locks that were above and below the little windows on the door. She backed away from it shakily and stared intently at the child's silhouette through the curtains on the windows. The Doctor and Rose decided to join Nancy in all the ruckus.

"What's this, then?" the Doctor wondered and leaned against the arch. "It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

Nancy turned to him, "I suppose you'd know."

"I do, actually, yes."

"What's so different about him?" Rose asked her, gesturing toward the door. "Why can't he come in here and eat with us?"

"It's not exactly a child," Nancy admitted before running to the dining room. She grabbed her coat and ordered the kids, "Right, everybody out. Across the back garden and under the fence. Now! Go! Move!"

All the kids obeyed her and grabbed their coats before running out the back door. Nancy ran over to a little girl who was still sitting on her chair, paralyzed in fear.

"Come on, baby," Nancy urged her. "We've got to go, all right? It's just like a game. Just like chasing. Take your coat, go on. Go!"

The Doctor glanced back at the door from watching Nancy to see that the child had stuck his hand through the mail slot. There was a scar in the shape of a checkmark on it and it was also filthy with dirt, and that made you wonder how long it had been since he last washed his hands. The Time Lord cautiously approached the door and kneeled down for a little chat.

"Mummy?" the child continued to ask the question that no one could answer. "Mummy? Please let me in, Mummy. Please let me in, Mummy."

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked him with confusion written all over his face. He couldn't understand how Nancy and the other children were so scared of one little boy. He's lived a long life and he's seen quite a few ridiculous suggestions, but there was _no way_ that a child could be terrorizing these people.

"Please let me in," the child pleaded with a sad voice that would make even the most heartless person on the planet feel compassion for him.

The Doctor slowly reached out to touch the hand, him being a big softie, but a vase was suddenly thrown at the door. He jumped away from the door at the same time the child's hand withdrew from the mail slot.

"You mustn't let him touch you!" Nancy cried.

"What happens when he touches you?" Rose questioned her, a bit angry at Nancy for being so heartless to the poor thing.

"He'll make you like him!"

"And what's he like?" the Doctor asked her as well.

"I've got to go," Nancy refused to answer and turned to leave, but even she could never escape when the Doctor still had questions. There was really no harm in telling him, so why not?

"Nancy," the Doctor called her back, "what's he like?"

Nancy slowly faced him and pursued her lips, not liking her own answer, "He's empty."

The telephone on the side table right next to the Doctor suddenly started to ring, and that's when everyone noticed that the child outside was eerily quiet. He hadn't left because they could still see the silhouette of him through the window.

"It's him," Nancy eyed the phone with scared eyes. "He can make phones ring, he can. Just like with that police box you both saw."

After about three rings from the telephone, Rose approached it and lifted the phone to her ear to try to prove to Nancy that it wasn't the child. However, when she heard the voice, her opinion about Nancy changed.

"Are you my mummy?" the child questioned for the millionth time, and everyone in the room heard it loud and clear.

Nancy raced over to her and placed the phone back on the hook, but that was only the beginning of a 'mummy nightmare.' The radio in the dining room turned on by itself as well as the toy monkey wearing band clothes and cymbals; both were asking for their mommies. With those two as well as the child outside all speaking at the same time with the question, it was a giant, annoying mess of words.

"You stay if you want," Nancy waved the Doctor and Rose off and raced to the back door to get back to the kids that were waiting for her. She was almost certain that the strangers would be fine without her assistance as long as they didn't give in to the child's pleading voice. It always makes compassionate victims fall for it.

The child stuck his hand through the mail slot once more and asked the infamous question, "Mummy? Let me in, please, Mummy. Please let me in."

"Help him," Rose begged the Doctor, hating the sadness in the child's voice. She knew that the child could possibly be an alien, but she wasn't heartless; all she saw was a child looking for some safety and love.

The Doctor kneeled before the child's wandering hand, not thinking twice about it, "Your mummy isn't here." Truth be told he didn't have the faintest idea of who his mom was, but he wasn't about to tell him that.

"Are you my mummy?" the child asked.

"No mummies here," the Doctor said. "Nobody here but us chickens. Well, _this_ chicken." He laughed and pointed to himself.

"I'm scared."

"Why are those other children frightened of you?"

"Please let me in, Mummy," the child begged. "I'm scared of the bombs."

The Doctor pursued his lips and stared at the child's hand. He studied the scar on his hand for a little while, simply thinking that he had gone through some kind of painful injury that left him scarred. The Time Lord's face eventually softened and nodded with determination.

"Okay," he said. "I'm opening the door now."

The child's hand withdrew from the mail slot eagerly and the Doctor stood up. He unbolted the door and opened it, expecting to find a child with a grin on his face... but expectations aren't reality. In fact, there wasn't even a child standing in front of the Doctor; he was gone, out of sight.

.l.l.l.

In his ship, Jack slowly lifted his hands on either side of him to show that he wasn't holding any weapons. He slowly opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Virgo cut him off rudely.

"Where's your lightswitch?" she asked him, her voice suddenly a lot calmer than before.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "My what? My lights?"

"No, Sherlock, I'm asking for a banjo," Virgo rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yes, your lights! Where's the switch to turn them on? Don't turn them on, just tell me. I'll turn them on."

"Right next to you, actually."

Virgo pointed her sonic at the wall next to her randomly, unable to see two inches in front of her. After a few moments of bleeping from the screwdriver, the lights finally turned on to reveal a messy room. It was pretty cramped for a spaceship. There were a lot of useless wires hanging from the ceiling, a cot was in the wall across from Virgo, and the controls were up at the front along with a captain's chair. Overall, it looked like a college dorm on a spaceship.

Virgo grimaced at the sight of everything, "You need to tidy this place up a bit. Chula ships need to be a lot cleaner than this."

Jack looked around the ship in assessment, then eventually shrugged. He'd get around to it eventually, but there were more important things to do right now. First of all, he needed to introduce himself, "Captain Jack Harkness. 133 Squadron, Royal Air Force. American volunteer." He flashed a smile at Virgo then offered her his 'ID.'

She simply stared at it before saying, "No."

"No?" Jack slowly frowned. "It's my ID. Take it if you don't believe what I just told you."

"Oh no, I'm not saying that you're not called Jack," Virgo shook her head and took the 'ID.' "What I'm saying is is that this isn't your ID. This is psychic paper."

"Oh really?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

"A few reasons, actually. I steal this off my friend for laughs quite often, I've used it enough times myself, _and_ it says here you're single and you work out." She tossed it back to him with a smirk. "Ha-ha. You can't fool me."

"Tricky thing, psychic paper," Jack caught it and glimpsed at the paper to see what the Time Lady had to say for herself. "Oh, so you're an alien called Virgo that lives in a blue box/time machine/spaceship with two of her friends. You also say that I shouldn't try anything funny because then you'll unleash your fury on me with the help of your very dangerous weapon." He held up his hands in surrender with a laugh. "Okay, I won't kill you. I promise."

"That's more I like it," Virgo nodded firmly and put her sonic screwdriver away in her bigger-on-the-inside pocket. "So, a Chula spaceship hanging in the sky during the London Blitz with a man inside who has psychic paper. Guessing you're not from around here, huh?"

"A sonic device, knowledge of what this ship is, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades," Jack countered in amusement. "Guessing you're also not from around here, huh?"

"Then we're on the same page," Virgo winked and snapped her fingers at him, but winced immediately afterward. She glanced down at her hands and saw that there were red rope burns running horizontally on them. She should have expected that, shouldn't she? Hanging onto a rope for about ten minutes could really take a toll on the hands, but then again she didn't know she was going to be given a free tour around London. It all started with that little boy... wonder if he ever found his 'mummy' or had even gotten down from the roof.

Jack noticed her wince, so he leaned on his feet to try to peer around the seat to see her hands, "Burn your hands on the rope?"

"I did, but I've got it," Virgo waved him off and closed her eyes. When she opened them, her eyes were glowing with regeneration energy and she blew onto her hands softly. Golden dust escaped from her lips and landed on her palms, and soon enough, her hands were good as new. She smirked and looked back up at Jack, who was staring at her in shock.

"Well...," he cleared his throat, "that was... interesting. Beautiful and interesting. What was that, what you just did there? Kind of looked like nanogenes."

"I can tell you it's not nanogenes," Virgo explained distantly. "Don't even know what nanogenes are, but you can tell me later."

"You can stop acting now," Jack suddenly said, surprising her. "I know exactly who you are. I can spot a Time Agent a mile away. I've been expecting one of you guys to show up. Though not, I must say, by barrage balloon. Do you often travel that way?"

"No, but something similar," Virgo shrugged, deciding to go along with the Time Agent story. She hadn't been to the 51st century in a while, so it didn't surprise her that she only worked out that Jack is (or at least had been) a Time Agent. "You know what I said about a blue box about a minute ago? That's my preferred way to travel."

"Sounds like such an interesting box," Jack mused. "Shall we get down to business?"

"Business? What business?"

"Shall we have a drink on the balcony?" he ignored her question and pressed a button that made a hatch open on the ceiling and a ladder dropped down. He grabbed a bottle of champagne and started to climb up. "Bring up the glasses."

Shortly after he climbed off the ladder and stood on an invisible roof, Virgo's head soon popped out with only one glass in her hand. She looked up at the sky in uneasiness, refusing to look down once more.

"Do me a favour?" she asked Jack. "Could you make your ship visible to at least us? I don't appreciate heights very much."

Jack didn't see why not so he took a remote control out of his jacket, pressed a button, and a brown surface that was about the size of a large living room appeared. The ship itself was still invisible to everyone else down below (or above), so the only people could see it was the captain and an alien. If it wasn't invisible at the moment, probably both the British and Germans would try to bomb it.

"Thank you," Virgo thanked him and climbed out off the ladder and onto the roof. What caught her eyes instantly was the fact that there was a giant clock very close by. "I like your parking spot."

"First rule of camouflage: park somewhere you'll remember," Jack agreed and then noticed something. "Why do you only have one glass? I said _glasses_ , plural."

"Yeah, I don't like champagne," Virgo grimaced and stared at the champagne as if it was the most awful thing to taste in the world. "Never saw what was so special about it. My head is staying clear tonight."

.l.l.l.

Nancy kept staring down at the ground in the corner of her eye as she was walking down a deserted hill with a feeling of being watched. She didn't appreciate being followed, so she took a massive detour to try to confuse the stalker so that she could go back to her little shack in peace. If it was one of the Lloyds, that wasn't a problem at all. If it was an officer... well, that gave her _two_ tasks instead of one: avoiding police 24/7 as well as trying to find food for homeless children.

Eventually she made it. She walked into her shack and made sure that she closed the door tightly so that no peepers could see what she was doing. She took out a little sack of food that she stole from the Lloyd kitchen and shoved it into a hiding place in between some barrels. Satisfied, she walked out of the shed and back outside to the evil world.

Her eyes landed on the Doctor and Rose, who were standing next to the brick fence. The Doctor was smiling away and Rose sheepishly waved at her like there was nothing odd about the situation.

"How'd you follow me?" Nancy questioned them calmly. She was surprised to see them, but she wasn't about to let them know that.

"I'm good at following, me," the Doctor bragged. Well someone's ego wasn't about to decrease anytime soon. "Got the nose for it." He tapped his nose affectionately.

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to," Nancy raised an eyebrow at his nose, not noticing it for the first time but just... trying to hide her amazement at how big it was.

"My nose has special powers."

"Oh, I see," Rose nodded and pretended to realize something. "So that's why it's..."

The Doctor stared at her in honest confusion, "What?"

"Nothing," Rose sniggered and Nancy shook her head in amusement.

"What?"

"Nothing... I guess your ears have magic powers, too."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Goodnight," Nancy waved goodbye at the pair of them, taking their squabble as an opportunity to slip away. Maybe they won't notice her leave and she could get back into a neighborhood and look for the next potential family meal. At times like this, she was glad that the Germans invaded Britain ever so often... but that was definitely the only reason.

"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids," the Doctor called her back. "Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right? The thing we're looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Nancy sighed and turned back to face them, "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell to the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

"Can you take us there?" Rose asked nicely, knowing that the Doctor would want to investigate there if Nancy was talking about it.

"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through."

"Try me," the Doctor dared her and crossed his arms.

Nancy stared at him blankly, "You _sure_ you want to know what's going on in there?"

"I really want to know," the Doctor pleaded and stared into her eyes as if he was trying to will her into taking him and Rose there.

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

"And who might that be?"

"The Doctor."

.l.l.l.

"When are we going to discuss this so-called business?" Virgo complained. "It's getting late." She was sitting on the roof facing Big Ben and Jack was right next to her drinking his glass of champagne. She was slightly peeved at him because they kept arguing that she needed champagne when she made it perfectly clear that she didn't want any.

"I told you, I never discuss business with a clear head," Jack told her for about the millionth time. "But since you're a bit foreign, I'll make an exception." _Finally_. "Are you travelling alone or with those friends of yours? Are you authorized to negotiate with me?"

"My friends travel with me," Virgo sighed sadly, now thinking about how weird that sentence sounded now that the Doctor knew the truth. "Probably not for long in a few days. I could squeeze in one little offer, though. What would we be negotiating?"

"I have something for the Time Agency," Jack informed her professionally. "Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"

"I'd have to talk to... Donald... first and discuss it together," Virgo said slowly, the sentence sounding more like a question than anything. "He's my doctor."

"Doctor?" Jack furrowed his eyebrows, slightly disappointed.

"Yeah... Donald," Virgo smirked now that she thought about the name. Doctor Donald. It had a nice ring to it. Now she had two nicknames for two wonderful men: Mr. Mickey and now Doctor Donald. She should really get around to making one for Rose after she got back to the TARDIS and Jack was finally off her hands. "I've got to get back to Doctor Donald."

"Doctor Donald?" Jack questioned. "When you say doctor, just how disappointed should I be?"

"You'll be very disappointed," Virgo chuckled at Jack's pout. "No, that's not the point. The point is this: you're not supposed to flirt with women - namely an alien - on a spaceship in the middle of the Blitz."

"Perhaps not," Jack agreed, but that didn't stop him from taking the remote out from his pocket again. "Do you like Glen Miller?" He pressed a different button and "Moonlight Serenade" began to play. He stood up and offered a hand to Virgo, which she gladly took. He tried to hide his groan as he pulled her up to stand so he didn't come out as rude and the two of them started to dance. "It's 1941: the height of the London Blitz, the height of the German bombing campaign, and something else has fallen on London. A fully equipped Chula warship. The last one in existence, armed to the teeth. And I know where it is, because I parked it. If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever. That's your deadline. That's the deal. Now, shall we discuss payment?"

"Interesting," Virgo muttered thoughtfully. "Would it be okay if I could examine it first with my friends? You know, as a very interested customer, I would like to see what I'm giving to the Time Agency."

"There might not be enough time for you guys to get a proper look," Jack insisted. "Two hours, the bomb falls. There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater."

"Trust me, Doctor Donald is _very_ good with time," Virgo persuaded him. "I'm only asking to look at it. It won't take five minutes."

"Five minutes," Jack agreed with those terms. "Let's go find your friends. Do you happen to know where they are?"

Virgo inhaled deeply through her nose then sighed deeply, "Indeed I do. A bit far, but we can get there if we take your ship. I'll put in the coordinates into your console." She stepped away from Jack and walked over to the ladder, not looking forward to facing the Doctor again. Or should she say... Doctor Donald.

A/N: First off, I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Turkey + mashed potatoes = a party in my tummy. And now it's December, which is Christmas time and New Year's! My favorite time of the year! Cannot wait for the Doctor Who Christmas special for this year, come to think of it.

Doctor Donald, anyone? I love it! You're going to love why I chose Donald... and maybe you can already work it out *wink wink* Don't worry, John Smith is still going to be the Doctor's cover name. Donald's just going to be a nickname like Mr. Mickey.

One last thing: you know how annoyed I am with constantly writing out "Are you mummy?" or "Mummy" or something of the sort. You probably already noticed that when you read the beginning of the chapter since I kept saying "the millionth time" or "the infamous question." The first five times, that's fine. After a while, it starts to get to you. Once I'm done with _The Empty Child_ and _The Doctor Dances_ , I'm going to manually count how many "Mummy?" or "Are you my mummy?" there are. It's probably going to be 50, that's my bet.

Thank you all for favoriting, following, or simply reviewing! I'm glad that you are enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying writing it.


	29. The Empty Child: I'm a Con Man

The Empty Child: I'm a Con Man

The Doctor was using some pretty advanced binoculars to examine the bomb site, Rose was playing with her fingers and occasionally looked up to stare at the area, and Nancy was directing the Doctor of where to look. They were still by her shack; the bomb site just happened to be a few hundred yards in front of it.

"The bomb's under that tarpaulin," Nancy pointed to what she vaguely saw was a sheet covering something up with five soldiers guarding it well. The site was surrounded by an electric fence and look-out towers. "They put the fence up over night. See that building? The hospital?"

The Doctor moved his head slightly to the left and located a tall, rectangular building that was hardly lit up except for one floor, "What about it?" He zoomed in on it.

"That's where the doctor is," Nancy said. "You should talk to him."

"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there," the Doctor peeled his eyes away from the binoculars and pointed to the bomb site. He wasn't saying that he didn't want to see this 'doctor,' but one problem at a time. Besides, what if it was a future version of him? Nancy hadn't said any names yet, so he could possibly create a paradox by stepping into the same room as the doctor. He wanted to see if he would regenerate in the near future, and if he did, he wanted to see what he would look like.

"Talk to the doctor first."

"Why?"

"Because then you won't want to get inside," Nancy smirked then turned to leave, all too ready to get back to the Lloyds' house. The feeling of being watched (not from the Doctor or Rose) was still nagging at her, and she had a feeling she knew exactly who it was.

"Where're you going?" Rose asked her with furrowed eyebrows. "I thought you were gonna come with us."

"There was a lot of food in that house," Nancy told her. "I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

The Doctor looked back into his binoculars and studied the bomb site once more, "Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?"

"Doctor," Rose stared at him like he had two heads and in disapproval.

"The way you look after all those kids," the Doctor ignored her. "It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."

Nancy pursued her lips and was silent for a moment or two before she finally gave in, "My little brother, Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me. I told him it was dangerous, but he just..." She sighed and stared at the ground in guilt, "he just didn't like being on his own."

"What happened?"

"In the middle of an air raid? What do you _think_ happened?"

"I'm sorry," Rose sincerely said, unable to imagine how painful it must be to lose someone so close. A parent was bad enough, but a sibling? Which one was worse? "I lost my dad a few years ago, if it makes you feel any better."

Nancy only smiled sadly at her.

"Amazing," the Doctor suddenly chuckled after a few moments of silence, whether it was intentional to mourn the losses or not.

"What is?" Nancy asked him in confusion.

"1941," the Doctor said thoughtfully, staring out at the bomb field again. "Right now, not very far away from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp, little island says no. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion... You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me! Off you go, then. Do you what you've got to do. Save the world."

Nancy nodded and waved goodbye to them. As she was walking back to the neighborhood, she didn't see a child in a gasmask follow her.

"Well that's a first," Rose smirked at the Doctor. "You're actually _complimenting_ the human race. I should probably award you with something after we're done here."

"Ha ha," the Doctor said dryly and walked toward the hospital. "I can easily take that back. You better savour what I just said because you're probably not gonna hear something like that for a long while."

.l.l.l.

It was a bit of a long walk to the hospital, but the Doctor and Rose eventually made it. On top of that, they wanted to avoid being spotted by any soldiers that were stationed at the bomb site. The Time Lord didn't want to risk getting arrested without knowing how dangerous the child in the gasmask could possibly get.

The time travelling duo bumped into a metal gate during the impossible mission of getting into the hospital, that was no issue at all. Nope, just get the sonic out and unlock the gate. Easy-peasy.

After a journey through some dark, abandoned corridors, the Doctor and Rose stumbled into the only room with the lights on. On all the beds were patients that had two things in common: they weren't breathing and were wearing gas masks.

"Why are they...?" Rose began to ask but trailed off when someone else entered the room.

He was an old man leaning heavily on a cane as he walked; since he was wearing a white cloak, it didn't take a genius to guess that he was some kind of doctor. This must be the doctor that Nancy was talking about, not _the_ Doctor but _a_ doctor. The doctor made his way over to a lone chair in the middle of the room next to a random table.

"You'll find them everywhere," he spoke tiredly. "In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."

"Yes, we saw," the Doctor said warily, glancing at the patients every now and then. "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

"They're not," the doctor countered mysteriously, coming closer to the chair by two inches every five seconds. "Who are you two?"

"That's Rose," the Doctor pointed to her and she waved at him a little. "I'm, er... are you the Doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine," Constantine added, completely missing the disappointment on the Doctor's face. "And you are...?"

"Nancy sent us."

"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes."

"What do you know about it?" Constantine asked him, looking pretty bored. That was probably because of how many times he had to go through explaining the patients and the bomb.

"Nothing," the Doctor shrugged absently. "Why I was asking. What do _you_ know?"

"Only what it's done," Constantine informed him distantly.

"What's happened to these people?" Rose asked Constantine with a hint of worry in her voice. She was merely expecting them all to sit up suddenly and start coming after her, like a zombie would.

"I think they were all caught up in the blast," the Doctor told her, though he didn't sound very certain of himself.

"None of them were," Constantine chuckled for some bizarre reason, but then the laugh turned into a bad cough that sent him crashing onto the chair. He coughed about five more times before he was able to clear his throat and swallow down tiny coughs creeping up.

"You're very sick," the Doctor analyzed him.

"Dying, I should think," Constantine sighed. "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"Sort of," Rose said, but it sounded more like a question. While the Doctor was called the Doctor and had his moments as one, he wasn't a proper one. He didn't have any kind of qualification that said he was, but then again she had no idea how much the Doctor actually knew. He could be very capable of being the best doctor there ever was and she would never know it.

"Have you examined any of them yet?"

"No," the Doctor shook his head and was already fishing for his screwdriver because he was that curious.

"Don't touch the flesh," Constantine warned him, giving him the okay to examine the patients.

"Which one?"

"Any one."

The Doctor walked over to a male patient on the left side of the room, the closest to where he and Rose had entered. He ran his screwdriver along the lines of the gas mask then trailed it down to the chest. Rose, having no idea if the patient was even alive or dead, simply studied the scar on the man's hand.

"Conclusions?" Constantine asked them, not bothering to turn his old head toward them.

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side," the Doctor listed off. "Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused, but I can't see any burns."

"Examine another one," Constantine told him, and so the Doctor did.

The Time Lord turned around on the spot to scan the patient who was next to the one he just examined. The only difference here was that this patient was a woman, so the Doctor gaped, "This isn't possible."

"Examine another."

The Doctor scurried to the last patient in the row, and guess what he said next, " _This isn't possible_."

"No," Constantine agreed, hiding a smile at the Doctor's reaction.

"What is it?" Rose asked the Time Lord worriedly. "What's wrong? What 'isn't possible?'"

"They've all got the same injuries!" he exclaimed in shock, then double-checked to make sure he wasn't going mad... okay, _more_ mad than he already was. But to have the same exact injuries in the same exact places... it's hardly coincidental. Now he had to ask this: did the child in the gas mask cause this or was it something to do with the bomb?

"Yes," Constantine nodded.

"Exactly the same!"

"Yes."

"Okay, so how does that even happen?" Rose wondered aloud. She might have not have gone to medical school, but she knew enough that having the same injuries for an entire ward of people was amazingly impossible.

"I don't know, but they're identical, all of them," the Doctor admitted and read the results on his screwdriver for the third time. "Right down to the scar on the back of the hand." Constantine glanced down at his own scar on his hand before looking back at the Time Lord. "How did this happen? How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim," Constantine explained in a way that was once again vague.

"Dead?" the Doctor guessed.

"At first," Constantine continued. "His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma?"

"No."

"Asphyxiation?"

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity?"

"No."

"He doesn't know and neither do I," Rose butted in, done with hearing these hopeless guesses. "What was the cause of death?"

"There wasn't one," Constantine revealed. "They're not dead." He whacked his cane against a waste basket, tipping it over in the process. The noise caused every patient with a gas mask to sit up straight and stare curiously at the three people in the room. The Doctor and Rose backed away from the patients that they were near and ended up moving closer to Constantine. "It's all right. They're harmless. They just sort of... sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."

"So, what, they've just left these poor people?" Rose said and watched as the patients slowly laid back down. "They left them to rot away in here?"

"I try and make them comfortable," Constantine pointed out and stared at the ground. "What else is there?"

"Just you?" the Doctor asked him. "You're the only one?" Apparently there was only one kind heart out of about a hundred doctors and nurses during the London Blitz. Thank goodness that times change and people become more good.

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather," Constantine admitted sadly. "Now I am neither, but I'm still a doctor."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," the Doctor swallowed, thinking back to Susan and his wonderful children that he had abandoned on Gallifrey. He wasn't exaggerating when he said that he would do _anything_ to even say hello to them again.

He could feel Rose's curious stare on his body; neither a good thing or a bad thing. At least she was paying attention to the conversation enough to have caught his little comment, so he'd probably had to have a little talk with her about it later. Was this how Virgo felt like when she found out that Rose had been eavesdropping on her with Jackie? Maybe so, and now he understood that this feeling wasn't nice to have. He had to hope that Rose would simply forget about this and move on with the rest of their lives.

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb," Constantine brought him back to reality.

"Probably too late," the Doctor shrugged, trying to act normal.

"No," Constantine disagreed. He definitely liked to simply say 'yes' or 'no,' huh? "There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." He coughed into his fist so hard that his voice was starting to leave him. The Doctor and Rose, both growing concerned about the old man, stepped closer to him to try to help him. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me: top floor, room 802. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?" the Doctor frowned. Of all people, why her? Well, he could already guess why because the child in the gas mask seemed very intent on following her around.

"It was her brother," Constantine desperately told him, but his his desperation well. He was sensing that his time was ending very, very soon. "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might-" He looked like he was about to say more, but it sounded like he was choking.

"He's choking!" Rose sprinted forward to try to help him, but the Doctor held her back. "We've got to do something! He's going to die if we don't help him!"

"Mu... Mummy?" Constantine croaked and Rose ceased in her struggling. "Are... you... my... mummy?" His mouth opened and his eyes grew wide as a gas mask slowly formed on his face, like flesh and blood. After the gas mask was completely on Constantine's head dropped down and hung next to his shoulder, looking like he was asleep after a long day of taking care of the patients.

"Okay...," Rose spoke after a long silence, "probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen." She saw the look on the Doctor's face that just screamed, 'Are you serious?' "Okay, the weirdest thing I've seen _recently_."

"Hello?" a man's voice called out, a voice that sounded quite familiar to the Doctor but he couldn't place where it was from. It was an American accent, he knew that much.

"Hello?" another voice called out, and this was one that the Doctor definitely knew of. It was Virgo's voice.

"Hello?"

"Is that Virgo?" Rose wondered aloud, turning her body toward the corridor where she and the Doctor heard the voices coming from.

Seeing no reason to risk waking up the patients and Constantine, Rose and the Doctor strolled out of the ward and into the deserted corridors in an attempt to find Jack and Virgo. It didn't exactly take very long since the journey between the ward and entrance wasn't that far away from each other. All everyone had to do was follow the sound of footsteps and shouts to locate each other; call it a version of Marco-Polo where everyone had their eyes open.

Jack's head popped out from around a corner and Virgo's head eventually appeared as well. His eyes landed on the duo, so he ran over to them and held his hand out to shake either one's hand, "Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over. It's a real pleasure to meet you, Doctor Donald, and you, too, Rosemary." He winked at them both before running into the ward where the gas mask people were resting.

"Hi...," Virgo nervously laughed and waved at them. She hadn't seen the Doctor or Rose since she was forced to tell the Doctor about her little story, so now it was... very weird. She cleared her throat and gestured toward the ward. "Suppose we should go in there, then?"

"Doctor Donald?" was all the Doctor could say to her.

"Rosemary?" Rose was also frowning at her cover name. She didn't like it, it was too much of an old name for her liking. Why couldn't it have been a more pretty name, like Rosetta or Rosalina?

"Oh, come on," Virgo rolled her eyes at them. "Jack would never have accepted John Smith and I really wasn't in the mood to answer 'Doctor who?'. Why not spice things up a bit? Besides, I like it. You're like my own Disney Donald."

"Okay, so why couldn't you tell him I was Rose?" the said girl asked. "Why'd you say I'm Rosemary?"

"The Doctor was getting a nickname," Virgo shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why shouldn't you get one, too? Mister Mickey, Doctor Donald, and now Rosemary. I've got my gang all set up."

"Where've you been?" the Doctor blurted out suddenly with hard eyes. "We're in the middle of a London Blitz! It's not a good time for a stroll."

"You know, I kind of noticed that the moment I stepped outside," Virgo crossed her arms and started to head into the ward with the Doctor and Rose following her. "I got a nice trip on a barrage balloon then I was transferred to Jack's spaceship. It's a Chula warship, by the way."

"What's a Chula warship?" Rose asked her. What kind of name was 'Chula' anyway?

.l.l.l.

Back at the Lloyds' house, Nancy stepped inside it to find that the entire house still had no sign of any Lloyd in sight. She wasn't that surprised since the air raid was still going on, but she wondered how long it would be until one of them wanted a midnight snack... Well, work quickly, then.

She walked into the dining room and took some random food off the table and stashed them into her sack to keep for later. They were very cold now, but that didn't matter to her. If it was food, it was food. She'd eat anything... except for pears. There was something about them that she absolutely despised, but she didn't know what it was; the shape, the color, the taste. It could be anything.

The radio suddenly switched on saying, " _Please, Mummy. Please let me in. I'm scared of the bombs, Mummy. Please, Mummy._ "

Nancy stared at the radio with horrified eyes and then her worst nightmare occurred: the child broke down the door and was inside the house. She could hear his voice loud and clear, and that brought tears to her eyes. Knowing that she couldn't run to the back door, she did the next best thing: hide under the table and steady her breathing.

.l.l.l.

Jack and Virgo were using their own version of scanning the gas-masked patients in the ward and both were staring at the results in shock. The Doctor was keeping his distance from Jack and was staying near Rose and Virgo. Even though he didn't know Jack for more than five minutes, he couldn't help but feel a bit hostile toward him. It wasn't Jack's fault that he talked to the pesky Time Lord from the future... in fact, that shouldn't be a bad thing at all. It was as if the Doctor's self-consciousness was screaming at him to stay away from Jack.

"This just isn't possible," Jack said in disbelief and double-checked his results to see if there was any kind of error. There wasn't any. "How did this happen?"

"I'm just as baffled," Virgo muttered thoughtfully and tried snapping her fingers next to her patient's ears to try and see if she could wake him up. "I saw a child in a gas mask earlier. Is he apart of this?"

"I think he started the entire thing," the Doctor nodded, remembering the child that had invaded the Lloyds' home. He turned to Jack. "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"

"What?" Jack frowned at his question. Why was he asking about the ship when there was an entire ward of patients with the _exact same symptoms_? There's a time and place for everything!

"It was a warship," Virgo answered him. "It's a ship he stole, apparently. Sounds a bit like you." She nudged his arm and the both of them laughed. "He said that some bomb was going to land on it in a few hours unless we make him a 'deal.'"

"What kind of warship?" the Doctor repeated his question, but this time it was really meant for Jack.

"Does it matter?" he asked, exasperated. "It's got nothing to do with this!"

"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. _What kind of warship_?"

"An ambulance!" Jack shouted at him. "Look." He pulled up his sleeve to reveal a futuristic bracelet and pressed a few buttons. A hologram of an oval-shaped container appeared. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle - love the look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait-"

"Bait?" Rose raised an eyebrow at this.

"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk," Jack finished up his ramble and turned off the hologram.

"But Virgo said it was a warship," Rose furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and pointed to said Time Lady.

"'Warship' is a general term," Virgo shrugged absently. "They have ambulances in wars."

"It was a con," Jack sighed in annoyance and paced around. "I was conning you. That's what I am. _I'm a con man_! I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

"Sorry, I lied," Virgo waved him off. "I just wanted to hear what you had to say. We're just a couple more freelancers."

"Oh, should have known," Jack scoffed and laughed at himself as if he was ashamed that he let himself get fooled. "The way you guys are blending in with the local color. I mean, Flag Girl and Little Miss Panda were bad enough, but U-Boat Captain? Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

"I'm still confused," Rose said. "What is happening here?"

"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot," the Doctor informed her with a cold tone in his voice.

"What do you mean?"

"There's some kind of virus converting these people and that child into these things," Virgo added on. "But why is it doing this? What could it possibly gain from a mindless human race wearing gas masks?"

.l.l.l.

Nancy was still hiding under the table concentrating on keeping her breathing quiet, but she couldn't help but quicken it when the child had entered the dining room and was slowly walking around the table. It was like he knew she was there, but he was playing around with her, like a child does.

"Mummy?" he asked the question that still wasn't answered. "Where's my mummy? Mummy?"

Nancy crawled forward toward the arch to try to run for it, but her traitorous head bumped into the table hard enough to make an apple fall off and roll right up to the child's feet. He picked it up and his head cocked, like he was examining a strange new item. Nancy suddenly got up and ran for the arch, but the child pointed at it and a door suddenly shut in front of her face. Apparently the arch was a giant doorway.

"Are you my mummy?" he asked once again and Nancy slowly turned around to face him.

.l.l.l.

A silence was settling in the ward, but it was quickly broken when all of the patients sat up stiffly and stared dead-like at the group. The Doctor, Virgo, Rose, and Jack all huddled up together toward the back of the room in an attempt to keep away from the gas-masked-people.

"Mummy?" they all asked over each other. "Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

"What's happening?" Rose asked with wide eyes.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted as the patients and Constantine all stood up at the same time and walked toward them, like zombies, and kept on murmuring, 'Mummy?' "Don't let them touch you."

"What happens if they touch us?" Rose asked, but even she could guess by now what would happen if they did.

"You're looking at it," he simply said.

The four of them backed up into a wall as the patients got closer and closer saying, "Help me, Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

To Be Continued In... The Doctor Dances!

A/N: You know what I really hated about Saturday last week? I was simply watching _Hell Bent_ waiting for if the Doctor was seriously going to wipe Clara's memories of him, but then my TV just _had_ to break. Well, not break, it was like... It was basically like once you got up to a certain point on the orange bar thing-y that you see when you fast-forward or rewind or pause/play, it simply stopped. You couldn't fast forward or hit play, but you could rewind. Eventually I did something, I don't know what, that made it "work," but I had to miss about 5 minute of it. I had to look up a transcript to see what actually went down during those last 5 minutes, and that pretty much ruined it for me. On the bright side: _River Song is coming back!_ Big yes! I'm so watching it!

Anyway, if you don't care and skipped that whole thing, I don't blame you because I know that I whine about a lot of things. Give me a break, I don't wanna grow up just yet. I still want to hold onto childhood imagination for as long as I can... and it's pretty much gone now, but I don't care. I have dreams!

I'm also getting mixed feelings about this chapter and the last one because there wasn't a whole lot of Rose and Jack scenes (anyone else think of the _Titanic_?), but I think that's gonna make it up when we get to the dancing part... the non-dirty version.

Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows! Infinitely thankful for them and I feel bad because it's been about a week since the last update, but I'll give you five stars for simply sticking around :D


	30. The Doctor Dances: Chasing Mummy

The Doctor Dances: Chasing Mummy

The Doctor bravely took a step forward and looked into the glassy eyes of all the patients, looking like a father who was beyond angry with his children, "Go to your room."

The patients suddenly stopped advancing on the four healthy people and cocked their heads at the Doctor. How they were able to understand what he was saying was beyond anyone.

"Go to your room," the Doctor repeated, sensing that this was actually working. Not the first time he launched himself into a plan without knowing if it worked or not, but it was always surprising when they worked. "I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, _very_ cross. Go. To. Your. _Room_!"

The patients hung their heads and trudged back over to their beds as if they were actually being children who were being punished. They sat on the beds at the same time and slowly laid down to rest and Constantine went back to sleeping on his chair. Well, that's what you call good parenting!

The four people in the back didn't speak for a long while, but eventually the Doctor broke the ice by saying, "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been _terrible_ last words." He laughed.

.l.l.l.

The child in front of Nancy seemed to register what was happening at the hospital, because he went from cornering her in the, well, corner to sadly walking outside to the abandoned roads. He seemed to know where he was going, so that was why no one was running outside to shelter the poor kid.

"Jamie...," Nancy whispered as she watched the child walk away. Tears were flowing down her cheeks and dropped to the floor to sob it all out. It was a mixture between mourning her 'brother' and the shock of seeing him again when they were both alone.

.l.l.l.

"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked as she eyed the patients uneasily. She wasn't about to go near one of them to evaluate her own diagnosis. It was going to be the patients' fault when they got their humanity back and saw that they were missing an arm because they twitched.

"They're not," Jack told her. "Those masks are flesh and blood."

"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor turned on him. He was still having trust issues with Jack and was staying near Virgo. Actually, he was still a bit hurt by her since she never told him that she was pregnant... so really the only person in the room he could supposedly 'trust' was Rose.

Jack shrugged, seeing no reason as to keep this from him, "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never know he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"That," Virgo spoke up to tell him that would never have worked on her, but when she thought about it, "... is actually pretty clever."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners," Jack smiled at the compliment. "Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm clock for Volcano Day." His eyes landed on the Doctor's furious face. He swore he saw a bit of steam coming out of his big ears; he would have laughed out loud if the situation wasn't a serious one. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"Take a look around the room," the Doctor gestured to the patients. "This is what your 'harmless piece of space junk' did!"

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter," Jack argued. "It was empty!"

"I'm sure it was," Virgo said sarcastically and wrapped an arm around Rose's and walked toward the stairs. "Rose and I are going upstairs. You two can continue on with your argument on who's more beautiful. See ya!"

The Doctor and Jack glared at each other before following the two ladies, but that didn't mean they had to stop arguing.

"I even programed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living," Jack continued to defend himself. "I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

"I'll tell you what's happening," the Doctor remarked. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's Volcano Day."

The sound of a siren off in the distance filled the room and caused everyone to stay put. The three out of four people knew what it was for, but little ol' Rose was the odd man out.

"What's that?"

"The all clear," Jack answered her grimly. The Germans might be leaving, but the injury plague was going nowhere.

"I wish," the Doctor muttered, speaking Jack's thoughts aloud.

.l.l.l.

After her breakdown about Jamie, Nancy finished gathering up everything she needed and headed out to the backdoor through the hallway. Before she could get to it, a child in a gas mask intercepted her but said nothing. She gasped and took a few steps back, but the child didn't do anything to harm her unlike Jamie. This child took off his gas mask and stared at Nancy dumbfoundedly.

"I thought you were Jamie," Nancy breathed in relief and tried her best to get over her mini-heart attack. It took her a minute to process that it was one of the boys who lived in the house, so when she did, she ran past him and made it outside.

But outside was as far as she got. The boy inside the house called out for his dad and Mr. Lloyd managed to grab her before she could get off the property. Honestly, if you wanted to talk to her, all you had to do was ask politely.

"Get off me!" Nancy hollered at Mr. Lloyd and struggled like her life depended on it. "Get your hands off me now!"

"Oi, you!" Mr. Lloyd pulled her back into the house with zero difficulty. "Get in! Get her in there! She's nicked!"

.l.l.l.

Rose and Jack were wandering around a corridor, hopelessly lost. One minute they were all walking together as a group then the next Virgo and the Doctor had run off somewhere like little children. Now it was up to Rose and Jack to finish up this game of Hide and Seek. They hadn't run off that long ago; it was only about thirty seconds ago. They were calling the Time Lords out by their names (well, Jack was calling out Doctor Donald while Rose was calling out Doctor; they both had Virgo's name correctly).

They walked past a staircase that was so unimportant that they wouldn't even check to see if there was anyone on it. They continued on their merry way until they heard Virgo's voice say, "Oi! Give it back!"

Rose and Jack turned around to find Virgo wrestling her sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's hands. Why the Doctor had it was beyond them.

"No stealing from _moi_ ," Virgo glared at the Doctor as she finally won the battle over the sonic.

"Oh, so you can steal from me but I can't steal from you?" the Doctor raised an amused eyebrow.

"When have I ever stole from you?" Virgo mocked a gasp and placed a hand on her chest. "I _borrow_ your stuff. I always give it back to you, don't I?"

"You don't give it back, I have to 'borrow' it back."

"Same difference."

Jack stared at the two aliens in amusement then caught sight of Rose looking annoyed, "I take it they do this a lot?"

"Actually, no," Rose shook her head, bemused. "It's usually the other way round. She likes to snatch stuff off of him, he likes to lecture her about it. It gets annoying very fast... so make sure your pockets are secure. She 'borrowed' something from me once, I made sure she wouldn't 'borrow' something from me again."

"Noted," Jack patted his pockets to make sure his blaster was still there, and it was. He looked back up to the Time Lords and saw they were still bickering back and forth. "Hey! Lovebirds! If you wanted some privacy, all you had to do was ask." He smiled cheekily and Rose gaped at him for his choice of words.

Virgo and the Doctor immediately stopped arguing and finally noticed just how close they were; their faces were quite close to each other and they could feel the other's breath on their bodies. Their faces grew red and they took exactly one step away from each other. Rose studied them and she suddenly had a light-bulb moment. Why didn't she think to call them lovebirds to not only shut them up but to give a little... nudge in the right direction.

"Have you got a blaster?" the Doctor asked Jack quickly.

"Sure!" Jack pulled it out of his pocket and ran up the steps, Rose right behind him. Apparently the two little Time Lords found a locked metal door that had seen better days.

"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt," the Doctor informed Jack coldly. "This was where they were taken."

"Who was hurt?" Virgo frowned deeply.

"Dunno, let's find out. Get it open."

Thinking he was talking to her for that last part, Virgo took out her sonic screwdriver and turned it on, but the Doctor grabbed it once again and shook his head. She glared at him then stole her screwdriver back and put it in her pocket.

"What's wrong with the sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked him, frowning a bit.

"Nothing," Virgo said quickly before the Doctor could open his mouth. "He just wants to know what kind of blaster Jack has because he's too modest to ask him."

Jack lined up his alien-looking blaster to the lock on the door and pulled the trigger. A sort of square blast surrounded the lock and it disappeared completely, allowing them entrance to the room that lied ahead. It took a bit longer than using the sonic screwdriver.

"Sonic blaster, 51st century," the Doctor identified it like the Sherlock Holmes he was. "Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

"You've been to the factories?" Jack eyed him, actually surprised by this bit of information.

"Once."

"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

"Like I said: once. There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

"Oh, God, no," Virgo grimaced at the mention of bananas. "Bananas are rubbish. Bananas to me are like pears to you."

"You hate bananas _that_ much?" the Doctor stared at her as if she had three heads. He _despised_ pears. He cringed at the mere mention of the blasted fruit.

Rose sighed and turned to Jack, "Nice blast pattern."

Jack nodded in approval and lifted up his gun to view it affectionately, "Digital."

"Squareness gun."

"Yeah."

"I like it."

He winked at her before he lead the way into a messy room. The room was separated into two halves by an observational window that was broken. The first half was an utter mess; cabinets were left open, trash was piling up and attracting flies, and powered down electrical equipment. They couldn't really see what was on the other half of the room because the window made it very hard to see through, but the door to get to it was open. Overall, the room felt very eery and created goosebumps on their arms.

"What do you think?" the Doctor asked Jack, noticing that he was looking uneasy.

"Something got out of here," Jack assessed.

"And that something was in quite a rush to get out," Virgo added on. "That, and he/she/it is a slob. 1940's: everything is a mess."

The group entered the second half of the room now that they were done staring at the first half. There was an old teddy bear in the corner looking very sad in the darkness, countless children's drawings of a child and what could only be his mother in stick-figure form and badly colored in.

"A child?" Jack nodded to himself. "I suppose this explains 'Mummy.'"

"How could a child do this?" Rose stared at the pictures in horror.

There was suddenly a click from behind them and the Doctor, Rose, and Jack turned around to see that Virgo had found a tape recorder and had turned it on.

" _Do you know where you are?_ " an old man that sounded like Doctor Constantine spoke to an unnamed person.

" _Are you my mummy?_ " Jamie's voice came through very clear.

" _Are you aware of what's around you?_ " Constantine asked another question, sounding very tired or annoyed. No one could really tell. " _Can you see?_ "

" _Are you my mummy?_ "

" _What do you want? Do you know-_ "

" _I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?_ "

"The voice rings a bell," Virgo spoke after a long silence from listening to the audio. "I heard it before I got a one-way ticket to Jack's ship."

"We heard it, too," the Doctor nodded and began his deep thinking.

" _Mummy?_ "

"Always 'are you my mummy?'" Rose noticed. "Like he doesn't know... Why doesn't he know?"

" _Are you there, Mummy? Mummy?_ "

.l.l.l.

Nancy was sitting impatiently in the dining room and constantly looking out into the hallway to see when Mr. Lloyd was going to return to lecture her. As much as she... disliked the man, she didn't want to put him in danger of Jamie. Wherever she went Jamie usually followed her in her wake, kind of like how destruction, chaos, and death followed the Doctor.

Finally, Mr. Lloyd walked into the room looking very delighted about something, "The police are on their way. I pay for the food on this table. The sweat on my brow, that food is. The sweat on my brow! Anything else you'd like? I've got a whole house here. Anything else you'd like to help yourself to?"

"Yeah," Nancy said, deciding to take the sarcasm literally just to spite him. "I'd like some wire cutters, please. Something that can cut through barbed wire. Oh, and a torch. Don't look like that, Mister Lloyd. I know you've got plenty of tools in here. I've been watching this house for ages. And I'd like another look round your kitchen cupboards. I was in a hurry the first time. I want to see if there's anything I missed."

"The food on this table-" Mr. Lloyd argued with her.

"It's an awful lot of food, isn't it, Mister Lloyd?" Nancy pointed out calmly, clearly already winning the argument. "A lot more than on anyone else's table. Half this street thinks your missus must be messing about with Mister Haverstock, the butcher, but she's not, is she? _You_ are. Wire cutters, torch, food, and I'd like to use your bathroom before I leave, please." She smirked. "Oh, look. There's the sweat on your brow."

He epicness level just flew up by 1,000%.

.l.l.l.

Rose narrowed her eyes at the Doctor and Virgo when she noticed that they seemed to be acting a bit weird. They were glancing at the walls and ceiling uneasily and occasionally closing their eyes as if to focus on something. They were obviously feeling something that she and Jack weren't, so the only thing to do now was to ask them what was wrong.

"Doctor? Virgo?"

"Can't you sense it?" the Doctor asked her and traced a finger along the wall.

"Sense what?" Jack furrowed his eyebrow. How come human biology couldn't allow them to have a sixth sense in feeling stuff that felt off? Well, maybe some humans were able to do that, but not him.

"It's coming from the walls," Virgo pressed both hands on the wall and focused on a point on it. "A bit of a vibration, if you will. I don't like it."

" _Mummy?_ "

"Funny little human brains," the Doctor laughed bitterly and turned to Virgo. "I don't know how they can get around in those."

"Don't be mean," Virgo scolded him but she let a little chuckle escape from her lips. "It's not their fault."

"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species," Rose muttered to Jack.

"Rose, I'm thinking," the Doctor whined, but she ignored him.

"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on lifeforms he's cleverer than," she said. Jack laughed and then she wondered why she was telling him this anyway. It sounded like she was explaining this to him as if to prepare him for what was to come as a companion to the Doctor. In all honesty, she could get used to having Jack on the TARDIS. Having another human around would be very nice, but she doubt it would happen. The Doctor didn't seem to like him very much and she didn't know why.

"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites," the Doctor thought aloud, a process he tended to do more and more lately. "They come out during air-raids looking for food."

" _Mummy, please?_ "

"Suppose they were there when this thing - whatever it was - landed?"

"It was a med-ship," Jack rolled his eyes at the accusation for about the millionth time. "It was harmless."

"We get it, your little med-ship is harmless," Virgo said. "But have you ever thought that maybe you're wrong? Every plague starts with one victim and that victim spreads the plague, so suppose someone was infected?"

"Infected how?" Rose questioned.

" _I'm here!_ "

"It's afraid," the Doctor realized. "Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god... and I just sent it to its room."

" _I'm here! Can't you see me?_ "

"What's that noise?" Rose asked them and everyone fell silent. It sounded like a sheet of paper hitting a surface repeatedly. It wasn't a very pleasant sound and it really wasn't necessary to make this room even more creepy... the drawings were accomplishing that just fine.

"That is...," Virgo was about to say her sentence casually, but then trailed off. "Oh... It's the end of the tape. It ended roughly thirty seconds ago."

" _I'm here now. Can't you see me?_ "

"I sent it to its room," the Doctor spoke slowly, almost afraid to know he was right. That's a first! " _This_ is its room."

On cue, all four of them turned to the doorway and saw the Jamie with the all too familiar gas mask on his face. It was unknown when he actually entered the room, but it was probably when he said, "I'm here!" at the least. His head was cocked to the side again in curiosity and he looked so innocent. He didn't have the "plague-spreader" look about him.

Jack stepped forward while the remaining three people behind him backed up to the wall. His hands landed near his jacket pocket, like a cowboy's hand hovering over his gun holster.

"Okay, on my signal, make for the door," he ordered them and stared intensely at Jamie. Jamie took a few steps forward with a little bounce in his walk, but that was as far as he got. "Now!" Jack pulled out his blaster and aimed at the child. However, the trigger wasn't working. When he looked down at his blaster, he realized it wasn't a blaster at all... it was a banana. Well, might as well have a snack while they were in danger.

The question was where was Jack's blaster now? In the hands of Virgo, of course! The Time Lady aimed the blaster at the wall and it slowly created a 4-foot hole that they could all squeeze through.

"Go now!" the Doctor urged them on as Virgo was the first to go through the hole. "Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?!" Jack stared at him like he had two heads before ducking through the hole.

"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor said.

Rose laughed before she took her turn through the hole, and then finally the Doctor once he saw that everyone was safe on the other side. He got out just in time to see Jack snatching back his blaster from Virgo's hands which brought a smile to his face. Finally, someone else was her victim! It wasn't him this time! He should probably celebrate later with some cake and a really good smoothie from the planet Barcelona.

"I warned you," Rose smirked at Jack knowingly.

He simply shook his head with a small smile and aimed his blaster at the hole to close it. It closed just when he saw Jamie's filthy shoes creeping toward it.

"Digital rewind," Jack said admiringly. "Nice switch."

"It's from the groves of Villengard," the Doctor pointed to the banana in Jack's hand. "I thought it was appropriate."

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did _that_?"

"Bananas are good."

There was a sudden punch in the wall where everyone just escaped from caused a big crack to appear. Everyone jumped up from fright from the sudden violent act by Jamie, yours truly. It also helped Jack and the Doctor to focus on the matter at hand and not dilly-dally on Villengard or bananas.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted.

"Come on!" the Doctor took the lead as always and ran down the corridor. He didn't make it for five feet before Virgo grabbed the back of his leather jacket and pulled him back toward the group.

"Nope, can't go that way," she told him and pointed to a large herd of patients all crying for their 'mummies.' "Both sides are blocked. We're surrounded."

The four of them felt the wave of déja-vu hit them as they all pressed themselves together as much as possible without making it awkward. The Time Lords were facing the right side, the humans the left, and the Doctor and Jack in front of the cracking wall.

"It's keeping us here till it can get at us," the Doctor announced after realizing this could the last conversation they'll have with each other before they'll get transformed into mindless zombies.

"It's controlling them?" Jack frowned deeply.

"I think it's doing more than that," Virgo shook her head and bit her lip. "I think it _is_ them. Every person that it's infected is them."

As the patients got closer and the wall became more cracked up, Jack eventually pulled out his blaster and aimed it at his invading force while the Doctor took out the sonic and aimed it at his. Virgo furrowed her eyebrows when she saw his sonic, wondering what he could possibly achieve by sonicing the patients.

"Okay, this can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disruptor," Jack listed off the qualities of his blaster. "Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic... er," the Doctor started off, but then thought about it. He shook his head. "Oh, nevermind."

"What?" Jack pressed on.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disruptor, cannon, what?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I soniced it up!"

" _A sonic what?!_ "

"Screwdriver!"

Jack lowered his blaster and turned around to stare at the Doctor like he had two heads (he might just have two heads one day, you never know), not caring that the patients were extremely close and you could see Jamie's head through the hole he created. The Doctor avoided eye contact with Jack since he was so embarrassed.

"Lovely, sonic screwdriver," Virgo said sarcastically. She grabbed the Doctor's hand and held onto it like a lifeline while her hand got out her own sonic. "Oh, look. I have one, too. Now can we please focus here?!"

Rose took Jack's blaster, now taking a leaf out of Virgo's book. She aimed it at the floor below them and warned, "Going down!" It created a hole big enough where everyone could fall down where they were standing.

They fell into a dark room where you couldn't see a thing. It was another ward, that was as far as they knew. With some lights, it could be easier to see where exactly they were. Jack grabbed the fallen blaster and fixed up the hole so that the patients wouldn't follow them.

"Doctor, Virgo, are you okay?" Rose asked them and became the first one to stand up. She winced when she felt a stinging sensation on her back, probably a bruise. That's alright. Better things to do right now.

"Could've used a warning," the Doctor snapped at her. He squinted through the darkness in an attempt to locate Virgo. "Virgo, all right?"

The said Time Lady groaned and sat up from laying down on her back. She rubbed her back with an "I'm so done with this" look.

"Yeah, but are we done with falling down for today?" she remarked sourly. "I've already got a sore back and nearly died from a barrage balloon. I think I've had more than enough of my fair share of heights."

"Oh, the gratitude," Rose said, annoyed how they weren't thanking her for saving them.

"Sorry," the Doctor apologized to Virgo. He stood up and helped her to stand up, noticing that she really was getting a bit heavy. He wasn't sure if he should be happy or nervous about that.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack laughed at them despite the situation.

"We do," both Time Lords said together.

"Lights," Rose muttered as she wandered around the room blindly to search for a lightswitch. She moved slowly to make sure that she wouldn't trip over anything, but she doubt she would. It was a hospital for goodness sake, it was supposed to be clean.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic?'" Jack teased them and the only one to take it as funny was Virgo. She was laughing while the Doctor was looking peeved.

"What, you've never been bored?" the Doctor asked him.

"There's got to be a light switch," Rose muttered, still unable to locate it.

"Here, take this," Virgo handed her her sonic screwdriver. "Use the light to find the lightswitch. I would say point it at the lightbulb, but I don't have a clue where it is."

"Never had a long night?" the Doctor continued his defense against Jack. "Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

Finally Rose was able to find the lightswitch, but when she turned it on, they weren't in an empty ward. It was far from empty. The ward was full of patients with the same diagnosis as the next person: a gas mask posing as flesh and blood and a scar on the hand. They all sat up and cocked their heads at the four healthy people.

"Mummy," they said in unison. "Mummy."

"Door," Jack commanded and nobody argued. They all rushed to the door at the back and Jack pulled out the blaster to try to make the lock disappear. It didn't seem to be working, so Jack whacked it in irritation. "Damn it! It's the special features. They really drain the battery."

"The battery?" Rose grimaced. She was starting to like the blaster, now they had to use the boring sonic screwdriver to get through the door. "That's so lame!"

The Doctor got out the sonic screwdriver once again and flashed it at the lock. There was a click and they all rushed in. That was a lot faster than what the sonic blaster could manage. The room they entered in was an ordinary storage room. There were boxes everywhere from the shelves to the floor as well as a wheelchair and a rectangular, small window above a shelf.

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory," Jack was telling Rose, but made sure the last bit of that sentence was loud enough for the Doctor to hear.

"Oh, I know," Rose nodded. "First day I met them, he blew up my job and she escorted me out. That's practically how they communicate."

"Not all the time," Virgo blurted out, but Rose only stared at her. "Okay, I'll say sometimes, but there aren't explosions _all_ the time."

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit," the Doctor announced and ran to the middle of the room to assess where they could move on from here.

"The door?" Jack scoffed in disbelief. "The _wall_ didn't stop it!"

"Well, it's got to find us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

"Well, I've got a banana and in a pinch you could put up some shelves."

"There's a window," Virgo pointed to it.

"Barred," Jack shook his head. "Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

"And no other exits," Rose added."

"Oh, excuse me for trying to be helpful," Virgo crossed her arms and sat on the wheelchair, glaring at a pile of boxes as if it were a group of Daleks.

"What's up with you?" Rose raised an eyebrow at her behavior. "You're not usually this crabby."

"I've had a rough day, okay?" Virgo snapped at her. "I was just trying to help what had seemed like an innocent boy at the time and the next thing I know, I'm hanging on a barrage balloon in the middle of a German air raid. I nearly fell to my death if it wasn't for Jack over there. We got surrounded twice and my sore back became even more sore, if possible. My hands got burned and I've had to use regeneration energy to fix them 'cos I didn't want the Doctor to waste his and we all know how he gets when someone's hurt. I'm not exactly overreacting right now."

There was an awkward silence and Virgo could feel everyone staring at her, but she could care less. She still had a date with a corner so she could cry it all off.

"Well...," Jack cleared his throat, mentally making a note to himself to never make Virgo angry at him, "the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"

"You used what?" the Doctor stared at her in shock.

"Regeneration energy," Virgo told him and rolled her eyes. "Oh, relax. I only used a little bit. It's not like I'm giving up my lives. If I was, then fine. Yell at me if it makes you feel better. You can't change what I did back there."

"You're on your _ninth_ body!"

"And you're on your tenth, but since you're still blaming yourself about what happened, then you're also on your ninth! And don't act like you wouldn't use your regeneration energy on me." The look on the Doctor said it all. "I thought so."

Jack looked at Rose for a translation of what they were arguing about, but she simply shrugged.

"Just... please don't use it again unless you have to," the Doctor begged her.

Virgo merely nodded, but never said that she promised him.

"Okay," the Doctor sighed. "One, we've got to get out of here. Two we _can't_ get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

"Yeah," Rose gestured to where Jack had been standing by her side not five seconds ago. "Jack just disappeared."

A/N: First things first: hope you had a happy New Year's and a fantastic Christmas! That is, if you do celebrate Christmas. If you don't, then ignore that last part.

Alright, now this: sorry this took so long to update. I wasn't really feeling all that inspired and I just kind of got stuck with this chapter. Rose went with the Doctor, so she was going to know a tad more than she was originally supposed to and Virgo went with Jack so she kind of doesn't know all that much of what was going on. Just a lot of factors to consider while I was writing this chapter out. Thank you all for bearing with me :D I wish I could give you hugs, but that might come off as creepy. I'm not creepy, I just like to share the love to those who don't get enough of it.

Also, I've officially decided that starting with the next update, **I'll be replying to your reviews in this story**. I'm not gonna reply to the ones I've already received, but to the new ones after this chapter has been posted. Not only will it probably encourage some people, but I'll be able to actually thank you for saying something nice about my writing :D That's kind of what I wanted all along. Call it my little gift for the new year.

Here's to my first update of 2016! Not used to writing out 2016, but I have to make a start, don't I? So long 2015! It's been a good run and I didn't want you to go so soon.


	31. The Doctor Dances: Jack Sparrow

The Doctor Dances: Jack Sparrow

"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air," Rose commented as if she was talking about the weather. "Why is it always the _great-looking_ ones who do that?"

The Doctor slowly turned to face her, eyed her critically, then turned back to the wall where he was messing around with some bars with his screwdriver.

"I'm making an effort not to be insulted," he said grumpily.

"I mean... men," Rose supplied.

She was sitting on top of a box and was pushing and pulling Virgo's new wheelchair around at a steady pace. There really was nothing to do except for this. No, actually she could walk outside and fight off Jamie somehow. That was something to do. She was never going to do that, of course, but the option was still there.

"Okay, thanks, that really helped," the Doctor said sarcastically.

A radio in the corner suddenly crackled to life and the Doctor and Rose tensed, expecting to hear Jamie's voice call out for "Mummy," but it was actually a certain captain's voice instead.

" _Virgo?_ " Jack called out to them. " _Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there._ "

"How're you doing that?" Virgo frowned. "Is that an Om-Com or something?"

" _Om-Com, yeah_ ," Jack nodded even though no one could see him. " _I can call anything with a speaker grill._ "

"Now there's a coincidence," the Doctor remarked.

" _What is?_ "

"The child can Om-Com, too."

"Really?" Virgo widened her eyes and sat up. "Then... that means-"

" _I can hear you_ ," Jamie's taunting, singsong voice bled through the radio clearly. " _Coming to find you. Coming to find you._ "

Virgo sighed and slumped back down in her wheelchair that she was now claiming residency on. She subconsciously wrapped her arms around her stomach, content that she could finally do that openly. The fact that the boy she was hearing through the radio could have died some time ago was very unsettling to her. She needed to have a quick chat with the mother to see how she was able to cope without her son. Jamie sounded like such a sweet kid.. excluding the fact that he was trying to infect them.

" _Doctor, can you hear that?_ " Jack asked loudly to try to drown out Jamie's voice.

"Loud and clear," the Doctor informed him grimly as he stared at Virgo.

" _I'll try to block out the signal_ ," Jack said. " _Least I can do_."

" _Coming to find you, Mummy_ ," Jamie taunted.

" _Remember this one, Virgo?_ " everyone could hear Jack's smirk through his voice as he talked. After a few seconds of fiddling with the ship's controls, 'Moonlight Serenade' started to play.

Virgo started to laugh much to the Doctor and Rose's confusion. The Time Lady met the Doctor's eyes and she simply told him, "It's a long story."

.l.l.l.

After receiving the wire-cutters from a generous Mr. Lloyd (not) and a little reunion with the homeless boys, she made it back to the bomb site. She made sure to keep out of the soldiers' way and out of the searchlight area. With hardly any difficulties, she eventually arrived at the fence that was covered in barbed wire. She took out the wire-cutters from her coat and started the tedious task of cutting.

.l.l.l.

Rose had gotten bored with pushing the wheelchair around, so now she was sitting on the floor playing with her fingernails. Funny, she never noticed how long her fingernails were until right now. She knew she should probably fix that later when this was over. Maybe she could go to an intergalactic spa! Then again, she didn't want any aliens touching her feet or hands...

Virgo was still sitting on her wheelchair and playing with her sonic while the Doctor was using his own on a pair of steel bars. It looked like he was trying to "melt" them, but it was taking a _very_ long time if he was. It's been about three minutes since he started the melting process, and all he got so far was a tiny, tiny dent.

"What you doing?" Rose asked him for the sake of a conversation, not out of curiosity.

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," the Doctor told her without taking his eyes off the bars.

"You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

"Wouldn't bet my life."

" _I_ think he will," Virgo remarked offhandedly. "I don't know what your problem is with him. Anyone who saves my life at least one time and hasn't betrayed me, I trust."

"Oh," the Doctor suddenly laughed half-heartedly, causing Virgo to glare at the back of his head. " _That's_ your definition of trust? I suppose you 'trust' me since I've saved your life a few times. You trust me with your life, but you don't trust me with a secret that shouldn't even be a secret in the first place?"

The Time Lady winced at his words, but didn't say anything. She did apologize, but she knew apologies weren't going to cut it. Now that she thought of it, she honestly didn't remember why she was so hesitant to tell him. She knew her reasons of not telling him were absolutely ridiculous, that much she knew. She deserved this.

"Oh, leave her alone," Rose spoke up, much to Virgo's surprise. "I'm with her on this. I trust him, too, because he's like you... Except with dating and dancing." She raised an eyebrow when she saw that the Doctor was about to say something, but decided against it. "What?"

"You just assume I'm...," the Doctor started off, but shook his head with a sigh.

"What?"

"You just assume that I don't... dance."

Virgo mocked a gasp, "Are you telling me the little Doctor does indeed dance?"

"900-years old, me," the Doctor gestured to himself. "You know how much you can get done in 900 years. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced."

"No," Virgo shook her head and laughed. "I cannot imagine you dancing on stage in front of thousands of people, let alone able to convince the theatre people to let you dance. The universe would probably blow up a hole the size of Belgium if that ever happened."

"Belgium?" Rose frowned at the chosen country. It was a pretty... small country. " _Belgium_?"

Virgo simply shrugged as if to say 'Why not?'

"Well, that's 'cos I haven't shown you my moves," the Doctor smirked. "I would have, but I didn't want to boast."

"Well, it's not like you haven't boasted before," Virgo stood up and held her hand out to the Doctor. Her grin widened when she saw that he looked a bit hesitant. "Don't worry about boasting. Show me your 'amazing' moves. Make my jaw drop to the ground."

"Virgo, I'm trying to resonate concrete," the Doctor shifted on his feet and stared at her hands.

"You can do that later. Jack's working on getting us out of here. Come on, dancer boy!"

"The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances," Rose added and turned up the music on the radio. It was still playing 'Moonlight Serenade.'

The Doctor stared at Virgo for a bit before his eyes travelled to her hands, her soft and clean hands. He turned off his sonic screwdriver, stored it in his pocket, then walked over to the Time Lady who was waiting for him. He took her hand, but to her dismay, he examined it.

"Were you really hurt that badly?" he finally asked after a few moments of silence.

"I'm sorry?" Virgo frowned in confusion.

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon."

"Yup," she said and popped the 'p.' "I don't recommend travelling by barrage balloon. It sounded fun a few centuries ago, but it's quite the opposite. You're high up in the air, surrounded by German and British soldiers, and the only thing that's keeping you from falling to your death is your strength in the arms. Not fun at all."

"Is this you dancing?" Rose wondered aloud sarcastically, causing Virgo to chuckle. "Because I've got notes."

"Hanging from a rope thousands of feet above London," the Doctor continued and ignored his companion. "You get so many cuts and bruises on your hands that you have to use regeneration energy to fix 'em up."

"Okay, I'll admit it was a big waste," Virgo sighed. "But Captain Jack offered to fix my hands with... nanobeans? Something like that. He offered me that, but I don't know what that was and it was a bit of a moment where I couldn't really think straight, so I used my regeneration energy. Plus, I didn't want him worrying about me and I didn't trust him at all at the time."

The Doctor considered what she just told him. He didn't really want to know how she managed to get on a barrage balloon in the first place, but he was upset that she got hurt and he wasn't there. She was terrified and saw her life flash before her eyes, and he wasn't there to tell her it was going to be okay. Better yet she used her _own_ regeneration energy. It should have been him giving her his. He didn't know why he wanted to waste his on her, he just... wanted to.

Then, it finally dawned on him on what Virgo had called Jack.

"Oh, we're calling him _Captain_ Jack now, are we?"

"Now what's your problem? He's called Jack. He's got a ship. He's a captain."

"He's not really a captain, Virgo."

"Maybe not, but now that can be his nickname! Reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow. Are we gonna have a little dance or what?"

"If he ever was a captain, he's been defrocked."

"All the same, he's still Captain Jack Sparrow in my eyes."

"Actually, I quit," Jack's voice suddenly cut in. He wasn't talking through the radio anymore. In fact, he was the in the same room at the Time Lords. They were back on his ship. "Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security. Also, love the new nickname."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."

"Oh, I do," Jack smirked. "She was gorgeous! Like I told her, be back in five minutes."

"You were right," the Doctor looked around the new surroundings in curiosity. "This _is_ a Chula ship."

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter," Jack added. "Only this one is dangerous."

The Doctor stepped forward to come to the middle of the ship and snapped his fingers. He put his arms out wide as little yellow particles that reminded him of regeneration energy flew down and embraced his open arms.

"Are these your little _nanobeans_?" he turned his head around to Virgo with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes.

"They're Nanogenes," the Doctor explained. "Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulkhead's sealed. Checks you out for damage, fix any physical flaws."

The Nanogenes, seeing nothing else to fix (physically, anyway), floated away and disappeared.

"Take us to the crash site," he told Jack. "I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-come back online," Jack promised, all too eager to get to the crash site, too. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

"We were talking about dancing," the Doctor self-defended and gestured between him and Virgo.

"Didn't look like talking."

"Didn't feel like dancing," Virgo agreed.

.l.l.l.

A little while later, everyone on the Chula ship went into their separate corners; Rose and Jack were talking to each other in one corner while the Doctor and Virgo were on the cots. Jack was busy fiddling around with some wires to get the nav-com working again.

"So, you used to be a Time Agent," Rose was saying to him. "Now you're trying to con them?"

Jack sighed, "If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."

"For what?" she wondered curiously.

She watched the cheeky smirk fade away and a look of seriousness washed over him. He leaned back and stared into the distance, reliving some moment that was life-changing for him.

"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories," Jack told her, then glared at the wires and continued talking in a bitey tone. "I'd like them back.

"They... stole your memories?" Rose's jaw dropped to the floor in horror. She couldn't even imagine what she would do if she was in his place.

"Two years of my life, no idea what I did," he shrugged absently then peered over his shoulder to see the Time Lords in the back still talking. He nearly laughed at how they were looking at each other so intimately and yet they were able to carry on having a pleasant conversation. He wished they'd just kiss already. "Your friend's boyfriend over there doesn't trust me and, for all I know, he's right not to."

Rose was about to reply to that, he suddenly leaned back into the sea of wires and looked at a little screen.

"Okay, we're good to go," he declared loudly so everyone could hear. "Crash site?"

.l.l.l.

Doors to a lone office in the bomb site opened up to reveal a few soldiers and Nancy, who was handcuffed to one of them. She had only broken through the barbed wires and made successfully to the other side without getting harmed by the fence before spotlights were shined at her and held at gunpoint. She could only hope now that she didn't have to pay _too_ much for trespassing; they would hopefully understand that she was a bit short on money and let her off the hook easily.

They led Nancy over to the desk in the middle of the room where another soldier, Jenkins, was resting his head. Jenkins glanced up at the noise of the doors opening and when he saw who it was, he tried to stand up. He managed to stay on both of his feet before they started wobbling and grew dizzy, so he had to sit back down. He rubbed his hand on his temples and gave a strained smile at Algy, the soldier who had been with Jack earlier, then stared curiously at Nancy.

"As you were," Algy nodded at Jenkins and pulled up a chair for Nancy. "Feeling any better?"

"Just a touch, sir," Jenkins informed him.

"Chain her up where Jenkins can keep an eye on her," Algy commanded the soldier who was handcuffed to Nancy.

Jenkins sighed at the fact that he had to watch over a trespasser before the sigh turned into a groan of pain. Nancy would have thought that he had a bad case of a cold until she saw a scar on the back of his hand... the same scar that Jamie had.

"No, not in here," Nancy shook her head frantically, frightened. "Not with him."

The soldier ignored her protest and handcuffed her to the table leg.

"You shouldn't have broken in here if you didn't want to stay," Algy said in an 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone.

"You don't understand," Nancy struggled to pull her wrist out of the cuffs, but to no avail. "Not with him!"

"This is a restricted area, miss. You can just sit here for a bit. We're going to have to ask you a few questions."

Another soldier entered the office and gave Algy Mr. Lloyd's wire cutters.

"Very professional," Algy examined it with a raised eyebrow. "A little bit _too_ professional. Didn't just drop in by accident, did you?"

Nancy glared daggers at him, "My little brother died here. I wanted to find out what killed him."

Algy's hard expression softened slightly, but his sympathy wasn't strong enough to let her go. Instead, he turned back to his soldiers and told them, "Take the men, check the fence for any other breaches, and search the area. She may not have come here alone."

"Yes, sir," the soldier saluted then rushed out with the other ones.

"Please!" Nancy begged. "Listen, you can't leave me here!"

"Watch her, Jenkins," Algy pointed to said man and started to head out of the room, but stopped in his tracks when Jenkins replied.

"Yes, Mummy," he said instantly.

"Jenkins?"

"Sorry, sir. I don't know what's the matter with me."

"Look, lock me up," Nancy tried one more time. "Fine, but not here. Please, _anywhere_ but here!"

Algy left just like that. No changing his mind once he's decided upon something.

"You'll be all right, miss," Jenkins tried his best to reassure her as best as he could in his condition. "I'm just a little-" He gagged slightly, then tried to swallow what felt like a cough. "Just a little... just a little..."

Nancy's face paled.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Please, let me go," she pleaded weakly, nearly crying her eyes out.

"Why would I do that?" Jenkins chuckled at the absurdity.

"Because you've got a scar on the back of your hand."

"Well, yes, but I don't see what that's got to do with anything."

"And you feel like you're going to be sick, like something's forcing its way up your throat. I know because I've seen it before."

Jenkins started to let the fear show on his face as his hands started shaking, "What's happening to me?"

"In a minute, you won't be you anymore," Nancy explained quickly. "You won't even _remember_ you. And unless you let me go, it's going to happen to me, too. Please!"

"What're you talking about?" Jenkins furrowed his eyebrows.

"What's your mother's name?"

"Matilda."

"You got a wife?"

"Yes."

"Wife's name?" Nancy pressed on and watched as Jenkins thought about it for a moment, widening his eyes when he realized his memory was fading fast. "You got kids? What's _your_ name? Please, let me go. It's too late for you. I'm sorry, but please let me go."

"What do you m-?" Jenkins started to say before he gagged more violently. He started to thrash around while a battle took place in his throat. "Mmm... Mummy."

Nancy looked away as Jenkins's face transformed into a gas mask slowly. The process was identical to Constantine's one; the eyes widened into perfect, glass circles and the nozzle formed through his mouth. He slowly laid his head on the desk, not dead but merely sleeping.

.l.l.l.

Jack, Rose, the Doctor, and Virgo soon arrived at the bomb site, taking cover behind the fence. The area was still heavily guarded and it looked nearly impossible to sneak in quietly; no wonder Nancy got caught so fast. The lights were shining brightly and the spotlights were moving around, looking for any more intruders that were with Nancy.

Jack soon spotted Algy a way's away. He was looking at something on a clipboard, glancing up again to check if anyone was there, then glancing back down again.

"Hey, they've got Algy on duty," Jack reported to the rest of his friends and pointed to him. "It must be important."

"I bet it is important," Virgo agreed. "We've got to get past him. Anyone got ideas?"

"Are the words 'distract the guard' heading in my general direction?" Rose smirked and rubbed her hands together, prepared to put her years of dating guys to the test. She took a step forward, but Jack held her back by the arm.

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea," Jack told her sternly.

"Don't worry, I can handle it," she reassured him, but he was determined.

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type."

"You want me to do it?" Virgo raised a hand to volunteer. "Not a lot of experience in 'distracting,' but I can manage."

"Er, no," the Doctor objected as soon as her words registered in his ridiculous head. "That's not gonna happen."

"I don't know, Doc," Jack said casually and tried his best to keep a smile from forming on his face, but was failing horribly. "Algy likes the smart women. She's definitely got a chance."

"Well, he should learn to branch out a bit then," the Doctor argued, very determined.

"And you need to learn to relax, tiger," Virgo shot back at him. "I'm just going to go over there, lead him somewhere hidden, then bash him on the head with something to knock him out."

"On second thought, _I'll_ distract him," Jack widened his eyes after he heard what she just said. "Don't wait up."

He then walked away proudly, satisfied with the result of his genius plan, and walked over to Algy. Rose watched him uneasily.

"Relax," the Doctor comforted her, then grinned happily. "He's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

Rose raised an eyebrow, unable to believe what she was hearing or was about to lead to, "How flexible?"

"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy," the Doctor continued.

"Meaning?"

"So many species... so little time..."

"What, so that's what we do when we get out there?" Rose stuttered. "That's our mission? We seek new life and... and..."

" _Dance_."

A/N: Well... long time no see, eh? I'm really sorry, you guys. My life's gotten really busy lately with a few personal issues and a new dog that we've got to figure out. It's just been really... hectic. The first few weeks I steered away from this, I only wanted to try to improve my writing skills a bit because when I look back on this, I cringe at how I word a few things. I wish I could change a few things, but I really can't. I promise, it was never an intention to abandon this story. It's the size of a novel, I can't stop now! And wow! 40 follows?! How did that happen? That is so close to 50! Thank you all so much, I really appreciate it!


	32. An Apology and a Teaser

Hi, everyone. As you all know, I am hopeless at updating and I have absolutely no excuse other than I've lost the passion for this story. If you think you're mad at me, believe me when I say I'm furious! I came so far, I've thought up so much, and then boom! Every time I try to write more, it's like there's a brick wall between me and the page. And then the creative juices inside me don't contribute to Hidden Away, but to another fanfic idea that's captured me in its clutches.

However! (Yes, there's a "however")

I'm not giving up on this story. I may have lost the passion, but am I really going to disappoint fifty-two followers (technically, I already have)? I may be a lot of things, but I'm not letting this story run away... even if every time I look at it, I cringe and think, "Did I seriously write that... and publish that?!"

So, as a wake-up call for myself, I'm now going to give you guys what I have written during the last time I updated. It's not gonna be a lot, very sorry for that, but it's something. I hate that it's not a whole chapter that you guys deserve, but this is only temporary. I will finish "The Doctor Dances" no matter how long it will take!

Also, I would like to dedicate this story to my aunt's dog, who died recently. She was a beautiful German Shepard and I wished I had seen her more often.

.l.l.l.

Unaware of the very interesting conversation about a different type of dancing behind him, Jack approached his friend with his usual grin and a cheery wave.

"Hey, tiger," he raised his eyebrows up and down. "How's it hanging?"

Algy gazed up at him from looking at his clipboard and frowned in deep confusion, "Mummy?"

Jack stopped in his tracks, stiffening at what his friend just said. He analyzed Algy. He didn't _look_ like those gas-masked people wandering around under Jamie's command. Had he simply misheard?

"Algy, old sport, it's me," Jack laughed nervously.

"Jack?" Algy stared deeply into his eyes and took a step toward him. "Are you my mummy?"

Without a warning, Algy suddenly retched forward, as if to vomit, and fell to the dirt. By the time he had fallen all the way down, a gas mask had appeared on his face and was unconscious. Jack was now able to see the scar on Algy's hand now that the clipboard was gone.

At the sight of anyone fainting; naturally the Doctor, Virgo, and Rose come to the rescue almost instinctively by now. The four of them stared at Algy in mild shock, but that was short-lived when a group of soldiers came running over to check on him. Both the Doctor and Jack pushed them back so that they wouldn't get infected or see that they were trespassers.

"The effect's airborne now," Virgo announced as she stared sadly at the man lying on the ground. "There's nothing we can do now to protect ourselves except to hope."

A loud siren suddenly sounded off, signaling that the Nazis were flying back over to London with a brand new stack of bombs. Already everyone could see the citizens of London retreating back to their safe-houses, subways, or the Underground calmly.

"Ah, here they come," Jack gazed up at the sky, glaring a bit at it.

"You said that a bomb was going to drop down here," Virgo told him.

"Nevermind about that," the Doctor waved her off. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?" Jack questioned.

"'Til nothing, forever. For the entire human race... and can anyone else hear singing?"

The four of them paused and listened closely, and surely enough, they heard Nancy's voice. She was singing a little nursery rhyme: _Rock-a-Bye Baby_. The Doctor looked around to see where her voice was coming from, and then he eventually found a lone shed in the corner.

He rushed over there, slowly opened up the squeaky door and found Nancy sitting on her chair. She was still handcuffed to the table leg and was singing the nursery rhyme to keep a gas-masked Jenkins fast asleep. Once hearing the squeak from the door, she stopped singing and spun her head around to see the Doctor.

He silently motioned her to keep singing, and so she did. She jiggled her handcuffs to show that she couldn't move from her chair, but that was no problem for the 900-year old Time Lord. He crept over to her and soniced the handcuffs, and once Nancy was free, she stopped singing and allowed him to lead her away from the office.

The two walked casually over to Jack, Virgo, and Rose, who all found the spacecraft that the Doctor and Rose were chasing through the Time Vortex. It was pretty small, about the size of a box but the length of a yard stick. Lights were lit up all around it to show that it really was mauve.

"You see?" Jack gestured to it, exasperated. "Just an ambulance."

Nancy raised an eyebrow in skepticism, " _That's_ an ambulance?"

"It's hard to explain," Rose told her slowly. "It's... from another world."

Nancy merely nodded, seeming to accept that answer.

"They've been trying to get in," Jack informed the Doctor.

"This lot thinks that this is one of Hitler's new weapon," Virgo pointed out. "It's World War II. Of course they're going to check it out."

"What're you doing?" the Doctor asked Jack, who was currently typing something on a tiny screen on the 'ambulance.'

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it," he explained hurriedly.

After about two seconds after he said that, there was suddenly a shower of sparks accompanying a loud _bang!_ as well as an alarm. The screen flickered from showing a keypad to a red flashing light.

"... Didn't happen last time," Jack muttered after he recovered from the unexpected.

"It hadn't crashed last time," the Doctor said. "There'll be emergency protocols."

"But what kind of emergency protocols?" Virgo wondered, and received her answer soon enough.

Her eyes trailed over to the large, scary-looking hospital and saw what looked like an army of gas-masked people crowding around the hospital doors. They didn't seem to know that they had to turn the handle to open the door, so they were pushing their body weight against it.

"We've got company," she announced.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder to what she was staring at and widened his eyes, "Captain, secure those gates!"

"Why?" the captain asked, but was pretty much ignored.

"Just do it!" the Doctor waved him off before turning to someone else in their group. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire," she informed him. She would've shown him the wirecutter if that soldier hadn't nicked it off of her. Well, that was Mr. Lloyd's fault for trusting her with them. Now he'll probably never see them again. Quite tragic, really.

"Show Virgo," he pointed at the Time Lady, who quickly got out her sonic.

"Alright-y, let's set you to setting 2,428D," she muttered as she fiddled with it for a few moments. Upon seeing Nancy's and Rose's confused expressions, she quickly explained the function. "It reattaches the barbed wire. Don't want any of those gas-masked people wandering in, now do we? Come on, Nancy."


	33. The Doctor Dances: Two Mummies

Unaware of the very interesting conversation about a different type of dancing behind him, Jack approached his friend with his usual grin and a cheery wave.

"Hey, tiger," he raised his eyebrows up and down. "How's it hanging?"

Algy gazed up at him from looking at his clipboard and frowned in deep confusion, "Mummy?"

Jack stopped in his tracks, stiffening at what his friend just said. He analyzed Algy. He didn't _look_ like those gas-masked people wandering around under Jamie's command. Had he simply misheard?

"Algy, old sport, it's me," Jack laughed nervously.

"Jack?" Algy stared deeply into his eyes and took a step toward him. "Are you my mummy?"

Without a warning, Algy suddenly retched forward, as if to vomit, and fell to the dirt. By the time he had fallen all the way down, a gas mask had appeared on his face and was unconscious. Jack was now able to see the scar on Algy's hand now that the clipboard was gone.

At the sight of anyone fainting; naturally the Doctor, Virgo, and Rose came to the rescue almost instinctively by now. The four of them stared at Algy in mild shock, but that was short-lived when a group of soldiers came running over to check on him. Both the Doctor and Jack pushed them back so that they wouldn't get infected or see that they were trespassers.

"The effect's airborne now," Virgo announced as she stared sadly at the man lying on the ground. "There's nothing we can do now to protect ourselves except to hope."

A loud siren suddenly sounded off, signaling that the Nazis were flying back over to London with a brand new stack of bombs. Already everyone could see the citizens of London retreating back to their safe-houses, subways, or the Underground calmly.

"Ah, here they come," Jack gazed up at the sky, glaring a bit at it.

"You said that a bomb was going to drop down here," Virgo told him.

"Nevermind about that," the Doctor waved her off. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?" Jack questioned.

"'Til nothing, forever. For the entire human race... and can anyone else hear singing?"

The four of them paused and listened closely, and surely enough, they heard Nancy's voice. She was singing a little nursery rhyme: _Rock-a-Bye Baby_. The Doctor looked around to see where her voice was coming from, and then he eventually found a lone shed in the corner.

He rushed over there, slowly opened up the squeaky door and found Nancy sitting on her chair. She was still handcuffed to the table leg and was singing the nursery rhyme to keep a gas-masked Jenkins fast asleep. Once hearing the squeak from the door, she stopped singing and spun her head around to see the Doctor.

He silently motioned her to keep singing, and so she did. She jiggled her handcuffs to show that she couldn't move from her chair, but that was no problem for the 900-year old Time Lord. He crept over to her and soniced the handcuffs, and once Nancy was free, she stopped singing and allowed him to lead her away from the office.

The two walked casually over to Jack, Virgo, and Rose, who all found the spacecraft that the Doctor and Rose were chasing through the Time Vortex. It was pretty small, about the size of a box but the length of a yard stick. Lights were lit up all around it to show that it really was mauve.

"You see?" Jack gestured to it, exasperated. "Just an ambulance."

Nancy raised an eyebrow in skepticism, " _That's_ an ambulance?"

"It's hard to explain," Rose told her slowly. "It's... from another world."

Nancy merely nodded, seeming to accept that answer.

"They've been trying to get in," Jack informed the Doctor.

"This lot thinks that this is one of Hitler's new weapon," Virgo pointed out. "It's World War II. Of course they're going to check it out."

"What're you doing?" the Doctor asked Jack, who was currently typing something on a tiny screen on the 'ambulance.'

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it," he explained hurriedly.

After about two seconds after he said that, there was suddenly a shower of sparks accompanying a loud _bang!_ as well as an alarm. The screen flickered from showing a keypad to a red flashing light.

"... Didn't happen last time," Jack muttered after he recovered from the unexpected.

"It hadn't crashed last time," the Doctor said. "There'll be emergency protocols."

"But what kind of emergency protocols?" Virgo wondered, and received her answer soon enough.

Her eyes trailed over to the large, scary-looking hospital and saw what looked like an army of gas-masked people crowding around the hospital doors. They didn't seem to know that they had to turn the handle to open the door, so they were pushing their body weight against it.

"We've got company," she announced.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder to what she was staring at and widened his eyes, "Captain, secure those gates!"

"Why?" the captain asked, but was pretty much ignored.

"Just do it!" the Doctor waved him off before turning to someone else in their group. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire," she informed him. She would've shown him the wirecutter if that soldier hadn't nicked it off of her. Well, that was Mr. Lloyd's fault for trusting her with them. Now he'll probably never see them again. Quite tragic, really.

"Show Virgo," he pointed at the Time Lady, who quickly got out her sonic.

"Alright-y, let's set you to setting 2,428D," she muttered as she fiddled with it for a few moments. Upon seeing Nancy's and Rose's confused expressions, she quickly explained the function. "It reattaches the barbed wire. Don't want any of those gas-masked people wandering in, now do we? Come on, Nancy."

Without further adieu, Nancy led the Time Lady over to her place of entry. While a few soldiers caught glimpses at them, the human was quite thankful that they seemed to realize that it was best to let them handle the situation.

As she watched the girl that was named after a constellation work, she couldn't help but blurt out, "Who are you? Who are any of you?"

"Trust me, Nancy, that is something best left explained on another day," Virgo answered.

Nancy almost wanted to scoff at that, but she decided on another tactic.

"Rose just told me that was an ambulance from another world, there are people running around with gas masks heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me, do you think this day can get any more weird? Do you think there's anything left I couldn't _believe_?"

Once her argument had been said, Virgo suddenly stopped buzzing her screwdriver and stared at Nancy emotionlessly. There was absolutely nothing on her face that could give an indication as to what the Time Lady was thinking.

"That... is an excellent point," Virgo finally spoke, even going as far as patting Nancy on the shoulder. "The Doctor, Rose, and I? We're time travellers."

Definitely not expecting that kind of answer, Nancy widened her eyes and said, almost laughed, "Mad, you are."

"Hey, you wanted to know. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"It's not that. All right, you're time travellers. I believe you. Believe anything, me. But... what future?"

Virgo stopped her buzzing once again and turned her body so she was facing Nancy. Pretty much every bone, muscle, and brain (only got one brain, though) was screaming at her to not tell Nancy the fate of World War II, but there was something else there. She didn't know what that something was, but it was there and it was telling her that Nancy was something different and almost exactly like her.

"The Germans are bombing London," she slowly informed her, being very careful about her choice of words. "It appears as though that there's no hope, no light, no happiness. But then out of the blue, this tiny island stands up on its own two legs and it says, 'That's enough.' Soldiers march through Berlin... and that's it. The Allies win."

Any regrets that the Time Lady had were completely destroyed when she saw that hopeful, relieved smile form across Nancy's face.

"We win?" she asked.

"You win!" Virgo laughed. "Just, don't tell the Doctor that I told you. It'll only make him even more cross with me."

Nany's laughing faltered, becoming quite confused, "Why would he be cross with you?"

"Long story. Basically what happened was I told him a secret and he wasn't a happy man when he found out. I certainly didn't help the situation by running away the moment he knew."

"Well," Nancy said as she glanced between the two aliens, "he didn't look angry or anything like that when I was with him."

"That's because we're a bit busy, as you can see," Virgo scoffed as she gestured around them.

"Have you ever thought that he might've forgiven you?"

Virgo was silent as she thought. Did the Doctor actually forgive her? Of course not! He would never forgive her. She wouldn't forgive herself, too. And now the moment she was terrified of the most was probably the moment the "mummy" madness was solved and she, him, and Rose were back on the TARDIS. Either he was going to make her talk about it or Rose would.

She hated those types of talks.

"Come on," Nancy beckoned her as she stood up, taking Virgo with her. She widened her eyes as to how hard it was to pull Virgo up, but she seemingly dismissed that little detail.

By the time the girls returned to the so-called "ambulance," Jack had just managed to get it open. The inside of it was just as boring as it looked on the outside: completely empty with no such color or design. However, that was the most important note to keep track of. It was empty.

"It's empty," Jack pointed out the obvious. "Look at it."

The Doctor, however, remained unconvinced, "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Virgo?"

"Nanogenes," she answered.

"It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough Nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God," Jack breathed. He rubbed his face with his large hands in shock while the guilt shot out into his stomach.

"Getting it now, are we?" the Doctor mocked him. "When the ship crashes, the Nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world, but what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gas mask."

"Woah, woah, woah," Virgo interrupted him with wide eyes. "Nanogenes can bring back a living thing from the dead? Why have I not heard about this?!"

"What's life?" the Doctor shrugged. "Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a Nanogene. One problem, though. These Nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left, but they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then they fly off, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest, and they won't ever stop. They won't ever, _ever_ stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form on one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know," was all Jack could say after listening to the Doctor ramble on.

The Time Lord simply glared at him before he started working on the keypad on the ambulance.

Meanwhile, the patients from the hospital as well as Doctor Constantine were now visibly marching toward them. They appeared to be moving quite slowly, which was probably the best news of the day.

"Virgo!" Nancy gasped, alerting everyone of the incoming invasion of the gas masks.

"We've got company," the Time Lady announced. "The ship thinks it's under attack, doesn't it? Time to send in the troops."

"Standard protocol," the Doctor confirmed.

"But the gas mask people aren't troops," Rose frowned, confused.

"This ambulance is battlefield-friendly," Virgo explained, having enough information about Nanogenes to get the basic idea of what they really do. "Probably none of those people over there were soldiers, but that's what these Nanogenes do, don't they? They give you the necessary equipment to get you ready to fight."

"That's why the child is so strong! Why it could do that phoning thing."

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes," the Doctor confirmed. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four-year old child looking for his mummy, and now there's an army of them!"

The empty soldiers finally reached the base, but then they suddenly stopped. That's it, they just stopped right in front of the barbed wire. They could easily tear down the wire since their sense of feeling was completely gone or make the gate move on its own, so it was obviously very strange that they were simply standing there. It was almost as if they were waiting for something to happen... or someone to arrive.

Jack noticed this, too, so he asked, "Why don't they attack?"

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander," the Doctor simply explained. He was growing rather frustrated because there didn't seem to be any way to call back the Nanogenes or, at the very least, stop the standing-still army.

"The child?" Jack guessed.

"Jamie," Nancy muttered, staring at the dirt and occasional lump of grass in despair.

"What?"

"Not 'the child.' Jamie."

While everyone stared at her for a couple of seconds, Virgo's gaze upon her lingered. She looked between Nancy and the gas masked-soldiers, high suspicions ringing in her ears.

"So, how long until the bomb falls?" Rose questioned, though Virgo wasn't quite sure who she was asking. Her brain seemed to be quite louder than the voices of her friends and Jack.

"Any second," the American flirt vaguely answered, worried.

"What's the matter, Captain?" the Doctor teased him, but not the playful kind. The mean one. "A bit too close to the volcano for you?"

"He's just a little boy," Nancy cried, tears threatening to fall from her sparkly, glassy eyes.

"Yes, he is," Virgo agreed as she took a few tiny steps toward her.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy!"

"I know," the Doctor sighed as he gave up on the ambulance. He rubbed his wrinkly face with his hands, then gazed upon the empty army helplessly. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy, and this little boy _can_."

"So, what're we going to do?" Rose asked, starting to panic if not a little bit.

"I don't know."

"It's all my fault," Nancy sobbed.

"Nancy," Virgo softly spoke as she put her hands on the sobbing woman's shoulders, now positive about her suspicion. "Nancy, how old are you?"

There was no answer.

"I would say in your early twenties, right? Just a tiny bit older than you look, right?"

A couple of bombs landed near the base and exploded, destroying nearby plant life and maybe knocking down a few trees. The ground shook a little as the bombs grew closer and closer, and soon one of them would land on the place where the ambulance was right now.

"Doctor, that bomb," Jack warned him. "We've got _seconds_."

"You can teleport us out," Rose suggested, but any sliver of hope was destroyed by what he said next.

"Not you guys," he said sadly. "The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."

"So it's volcano day," the Doctor nodded, studying the exchange between the braided girls in front of him. "Do what you've got to do."

Jack agreed with the nod of his head as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a brown bracelet on his arm. He ignored Rose, who was questioning what he was doing. And with a few presses with a few buttons, he vanished into thin air, just like earlier.

"Now, five years ago, how old were you then?" Virgo resumed her questioning with Nancy, who hadn't calmed down in the slightest. "Teenager age, maybe about fifteen or sixteen. That's old enough to give birth. I'm right, aren't I?"

Nancy nodded, too upset to say it properly.

"There we are, then," Virgo squeezed her shoulders, which was meant to be some form of comfort. "Five years ago, you were a teenage single mother, so you did what any sensible teenage mother would do: hide and lie. You even lied to Jamie, and that is a major violation in parenthood." The Time Lady glared at her and removed her hands from the shoulders. "To save your reputation, your identity, I don't know; but all of that should've been in the very back of your mind when it came to your _son_! How dare you lie to him about that? How dare you lie to him about the most important woman in his life: his own mother?!"

The gate opened in front of the gas masked army, now with Jamie present. He was the first to start marching toward them, asking a question that had been on his mind his whole life:

"Are you my mummy?"

"And since you've lied to him, he will always keep asking," Virgo spat out at Nancy while she turned her around to make her face her son. "He will _never_ stop until he knows... until _you tell him_!"

"The future of the human race is in your hands, Nancy," the Doctor added, though his tone was a lot more softer. "Trust us and tell him."

As Virgo's words sank into her mind, Nancy sniffled as she looked upon her son. The true realization of what she had done filled her with _so_ much guilt and sadness, it was almost unbearable. Looking at Jamie now, it was like this was a nightmare. Her son was reduced to a walking minion constantly asking about her whereabouts, all because she refused to tell him when he was more alive.

Well, not anymore.

Nancy narrowed her eyes in determination and strode forward, toward Jamie. With every step she took, it was full of power and force that simply screamed that she was an angry mother that would do anything to get her son back.

"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked her. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes," Nancy answered his repetitive question. "Yes, I _am_ your mummy."

"Mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes."

"Are you my mummy?"

"He doesn't understand," the Doctor sighed, crushed that Jamie was too far gone. "There's not enough left of him."

"A pity," Virgo snarled coldly. "Jamie would've loved to have known his mother before the bombs got to him."

A fury bundled up in Nancy. A fury that she had never felt before, but it felt really good to feel. She narrowed her eyes and spoke in the most powerful voice she could muster up, "I am your mummy. _I will always be your mummy_! I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

The fear of being infected immediately left her mind. She crouched down and squeezed Jamie into the tightest hug she had ever given anyone, pouring all of her love and apologies into it. What killed her the most was that Jamie wasn't hugging her back, but that was okay. She didn't deserve to have a full hug.

Unbeknownst to her, a cloud of Nanogenes surrounded the mother and son, trying to recognize their mistake about what a human being looked like.

"What's happening?" Rose pointed to the golden cloud. "It's changing her, we should-"

The Doctor shushed her quickly, "Come on, please! Come on, you clever, little Nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, _she's_ the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out!"

"What's happening?"

The cloud of Nanogenes suddenly lit up brighter, causing the Time Lords in the background to cheer happily.

"It's recognizing the superior DNA," Virgo explained, fiddling with her hands nervously. "Do I dare hope that...?"

The cloud dissolved and Nancy slumped to sit on the ground, exhausted from her emotions and from whatever the Nanogenes did with her. The Doctor raced forward and stared down at Jamie, who wasn't reaching out to touch him.

"Oh, come on," he hoped. "Give me a day like this. Give me this one."

With no hesitation present, he gently tore off the gas mask off of Jamie to reveal a little boy with freckles painted lightly across his cheeks and a small smile that filled Nancy up with relief.

"Ha ha!" the Doctor cheered as he picked Jamie up and gave him a little hug. "Welcome back! Twenty years 'til pop music; you're gonna love it!"

"What happened?" Nancy asked him as she stood back up on her feet.

The Doctor gently set Jamie down onto the ground so that he could be reunited with his mother and told her, "The Nanogenes recognised the superior information: the parent DNA. They didn't change you because _you_ changed _them_! Ha ha! Mother knows best!"

"Oh, Jamie," Nancy breathed as she hugged Jamie tightly, beaming when she felt his arms wrap around her.

"Doctor, that bomb," Rose reminded him, but he was unfazed.

"Taken care of!"

"How?"

"Psychology!"

Just when he said that last word, a German bomb came hurtling toward the ambulance at a high speed. When everyone thought they were done for, the bomb suddenly stopped mere _inches_ away from the ground. What stopped the fall? Jack's light beam had caught up to it and his ship was right behind the bomb.

" _Doctor!_ " Jack spoke through his intercom.

"Good lad!" the Doctor waved up at him, unsure if Jack could actually see it.

" _The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in a stasis, but it won't last long._ "

"There's no need for the bomb," Virgo called up to him. "We fixed the problem. Can you get rid of it, please, without hurting anyone if possible?"

" _Rose?_ " Jack said after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?" the little blonde human answered, shielding her eyes a bit from the light from the light beam.

" _Goodbye_ ," he made his farewell before there was a zap. The ship and the bomb were gone for about a total of three seconds before both came back. " _By the way, love the t-shirt_."

The ship left again for the last time, flying off into the night sky while avoiding any German or British barrage balloons. If anyone was looking up at the sky, they would've been either curious or terrified of the strange ship. And then they would wonder what they had seen for the rest of their lives and die never knowing.

The Doctor held out his arms, which caused the Nanogenes to come flying over to surround them. The shine from the little golden beauties lit up his face and that giant smile was just an added bonus. Virgo also noticed how the shine seemed make him look like a handsome god creating something very important and precious. The most important man she ever saw in her entire life... and that had to make her smile, even if she didn't realize it.

"What are you doing?" Rose furrowed her eyebrows, on a completely different perspective from the Time Lady. She didn't see a handsome god; she saw the Doctor summoning Nanogenes.

"Software patch," he shrugged. "Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Virgo? I'll give you moves."

The Time Lord took a giant step forward and lurched his arms toward the rest of the infected soldiers. The Nanogenes scurried over and patched them up quickly, which caused them to collapse to the ground.

"Everybody lives, Virgo," the Doctor beamed. "Just this once, _everybody lives_!"

The Nanogenes then scattered out in search of any more people they had incorrectly fixed up while the patients slowly stood back up on their feet. Of course, they were confused as to why they were standing in a military base, but the good news was was that they were very much alive. Now how often did that happen?

"Doctor Constantine," the Doctor greeted the doctor, running over to him to pat him on the back. "Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit! These are your patients. All better now.

Constantine observed them and agreed, "Yes, yes, so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

Having no idea how to explain that, the Doctor sheepishly responded, "Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it, okay?"

He hurried back over to the ambulance, where Rose and Virgo were staring at him in amusement.

"Right, you lot," he said. "Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world; don't forget the welfare state!" He pulled out the sonic and flashed it at the screen on the ambulance. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

"Last I recall, you are always the one to laugh in the face of it," Virgo remarked with a laugh. Her attention then turned to Nancy and Jamie, who were still hugging it out. "Nancy, a moment, please!"

The Time Lady jogged over to the family just as they pulled out of their hug.

"Hi," Virgo waved sheepishly at Nancy, who only looked confused. "This is probably the most important moment in your whole life, so I'm sorry that I'm interrupting, but I need you to promise me something."

"Promise you what?" Nancy asked, still a bit hurt from when she called her a liar. That was true, of course, but it still hurt.

"Stay with your son," the Time Lady almost begged her, probably the most serious she had ever been. "Love him to death. Don't let him have the rest of his childhood be spent by himself." She gazed down at Jamie. "And you, little mister." She ruffled his hair, which made him giggle. "You listen to your mum, all right? No more wandering off in the streets alone. Are we all clear?"

Both Jamie and Nancy nodded with big grins, which were contagious enough to make Virgo smile back. Yes, those two humans would be just fine.

.l.l.l.

All the way back to the TARDIS, the Doctor would not stop rambling on about how the Nanogenes would fix everybody up. While Rose found herself laughing along, Virgo was focused on how happy - no, _elated_ he was being. She couldn't remember a time where he had been this excited. If she thought that meeting Charles Dickens made him happy, then, boy, was she wrong!

When they entered the TARDIS, the Doctor was _still_ going on about the Nanogenes, "The Nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"

"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas," Rose giggled as she strolled up the ramp with a hop in her walk.

"Who says I'm not?" the Doctor shrugged. "Red bicycle when you were twelve?"

She immediately stopped walking and asked, "What?"

"And everybody lives! _Everybody lives_! I need more days like this."

"As much as I'm happy, too, I think we should discuss Captain Jack Sparrow," Virgo announced as she jogged to the console and pressed a few buttons.

"Do we really have to pick him up?" the Doctor whined with a pout. "He started this whole mess in the first place."

"And he happened to save my life," the Time Lady retorted, suddenly angry. "That doesn't happen very often and unless you want your 'everybody lives' thing to be true, then we _are_ gonna pick him up."

"Mmm, and I thought he was just saying farewell," Rose remarked before she took the Doctor's hand. "Come on, Doctor. While Virgo pilots, I'll teach you some moves."

And when Virgo pulled a final lever, the TARDIS was set into motion with the stabilizers on so that the Doctor and Rose could dance smoothly. While she did agree that the stabilizers off were quite fun sometimes, her stomach was bothering her a bit. She wasn't sure if the baby was doing something to cause it or if it was just a stomach bug.

Once she knew they were aboard Jack's Chula ship, she pulled open the doors to see him sitting in the captain's chair with a glass of wine in his hand. That was a very interesting image to see. She made a quick note that Jack seemed completely at ease when he knew he was about to die.

"Hey, Jack Sparrow!" she called out to him. "The Doctor and Rose are putting on a show and I don't want you to miss it. Come on!"

Seeing absolutely no reason why he shouldn't, Jack set down his glass in the cup holder and followed Virgo into the little blue box. When he stepped inside, he was quite shocked to find that it was bigger on the inside. Mind you, not as shocked as a person from the 21st century, but still quite amazed.

"Please be sure to close the door behind you," Virgo told him as she sat down on the captain's chair, watching the Doctor trying not to step on Rose's toes as they danced the waltz. "There's going to be a draught when your ship blows and it makes the TARDIS feel queasy."

Jack shut the door without taking his eyes off the interior, not noticing the dancing pair nearby.

"Okay," Rose instructed. "And right... and turn."

The Doctor spun her, but it ended up awkwardly pinning her arm behind her back. Rose stepped back and turned herself around to try it again.

"Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff," the Doctor murmured thoughtfully before he caught sight of Jack. "Welcome to the TARDIS!"

"Much bigger on the inside," Jack spoke the famous words.

Rose broke away from the Doctor and walked over to Jack and held out her hand to him and offered, "I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in."

"Why don't we try a different type of dance," Virgo suggested as she got up from her seat and fiddled with the TARDIS. She changed the song from a slow waltz dance to a fast-paced song, and also venturing into the Time Vortex all at the same time. "Glenn Miller anyone?"

"Oh, Virgo, I've just remembered," the Doctor shouted as he swiftly moved his feet and snapped his fingers along with the beat. "I can dance! I can dance!"

"Come on, Virgo!" Rose laughed as she danced with Jack, yelling in surprise when he suddenly dipped her. "Join in the fun!"

"Oh, fine," the Time Lady decided as she took hold of the Doctor's hand and twirled him around. "I will warn you now, I'm a rubbish dancer."

And so the dance party finally started, making the Time Vortex a fun place to be. The events that were laid out ahead for all four of them were quite troubling and terrifying, but as long as they all held hands with each other, everything would turn out okay. Unfortunately, there was going to be something that none of them could fix or avoid. The time was approaching swiftly and _no one_ was safe from the fury of the Bad Wolf.

A/N: Hey, hey, hey! We finally did it! Well, I say "we" even though I did all the work. After about four months, we finally finished "The Doctor Dances!" As promised, I will give you the total number of times someone said, "Are you my mummy?" The number is... about fifteen times. Huh, I'd thought there'd be more than that... Oh, and do you remember what I said about there being no passion anymore? I think it's coming back very slowly. Let's all hope that it will fully come back by the time the Doctor regenerates because I want that scene to be absolutely 100% perfect!


End file.
